By John Fogarty
Cork senior hurling selector Diarmuid O’Sullivan will be free to fulfil his role as maor foirne in the Munster senior hurling championship having avoided a sideline ban.
The three-time All-Ireland winner was sent to the stand after he argued with referee Seán Cleere following the Kilkenny referee’s decision not to award Shane Kingston a free in the first half of last month’s Division 1, Group A defeat to Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
O’Sullivan could have faced as much as a 12-week ban, which would have carried over in the provincial competition.
But then Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald avoided a suspension last summer when he was advised to go to the stand during his side’s Leinster SHC game against Galway in Pearse Stadium.
O’Sullivan, 41, was on the sideline for Cork’s defeat to Galway the weekend before last and at the time of the incident with Cleere manager Kieran Kingston understood his assistant’s anger with the call not to award the free to Cork.
“He was frustrated. There were two charges into the (Shane Kingston’s) face, which he brought to the officials’ attention.”
Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy yesterday confirmed Cathal Barrett served his one-match ban on Sunday after the county unsuccessfully contested that he was wrongly sent off against Waterford for an incident involving Dessie Hutchinson.
“We didn’t get anywhere,” he bemoaned. “Attempted strike of the hand. From my recollection, I don’t think his hand touched the opponent’s body but yeah, I don’t make the rules.”