Joe Canning: Disciplinary inconsistencies a scourge

Five-time All-Star Joe Canning has said that the inconsistencies surrounding the GAA's disciplinary system is a more frustrating aspect than the number of citations that fail to stick.

The Portumna great was speaking at the launch of the Bord Gáis Energy County Pride t-shirts and when asked whether or not the GAA’s disciplinary system remains fit for purpose in the wake of the latest appeals controversy surrounding Clare's Peter Duggan and Rory Hayes and Galway’s Cianan Fahy, the 2017 Hurler of the Year argued that the key concerns lay elsewhere.

"The issue I kind of have with it is that the whole situation, especially the Clare lads and stuff like that and how it was brought to life, the issue I have is that it was very much one-sided. That it wasn’t as impartial and there were no highlights of Limerick players [indiscretions], it was all just Clare," said Canning, who will be in one of the pundits’ chairs for Saturday's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final double bill on RTÉ.

"I think that’s the issue I have more so than anything, how people influence that side of things. I think when you’re in that position you have to give both sides. And maybe there wasn’t anything but I'm just saying it looked bad for me looking in that it was all about the Clare lads.

"Now what they did was wrong, what Cianan Fahy did was wrong but then the system of how they got off, it’s a hard one to know."

Canning said the one of the main victims in the piece was Munster final referee John Keenan who had earned plaudits for contributing to an extra-time epic that saw Limerick eventually get the better of the Banner.

"Obviously there is some kind of flaw in the system. If you went down that road of looking at videos back after