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Dublin footballers escape fines as Kerry manager Keane slams breaches

The Dublin senior footballers who engaged in a secret training session back in March will not face f...


Dublin footballers escape fine...

Sport

Dublin footballers escape fines as Kerry manager Keane slams breaches


The Dublin senior footballers who engaged in a secret training session back in March will not face fines following a Garda investigation.

The Irish Independent reports that Gardai were satisfied with the engagement of the players during the process of their investigation, which meant fines were deemed not to be a necessary penalty.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has also decided there will be no action taken against the organisers of the session at Inisfails GAA Club back in March.

Up to eight Dublin players took part in the session, which resulted in the Dublin county board suspending manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks and apologising for a 'serious error of judgement'.

Kerry senior football boss Peter Keane has claimed in a media briefing that the actions of panels who breached training guidelines during lockdown were 'unfair on society'.

“Look, we didn’t engage in training during the Government restrictions," said Keane.

"We did a lot of stuff online. By God, we did a lot of cycling online – I’d say we’ve covered the Ring of Kerry a few times over, just to have the guys in, and we probably found that the best way to be together was to be apart.

He added: “I think what the other counties did was wrong. I think it was unfair. I think it was unfair on society in general. The view was that we were all in this together and, look, some of these counties breached the Covid guidelines and I don’t believe they should have.

“Did it bring pressure? I think, in the early part, yes it did. We took a view down here that we weren’t going to do it.

“We were going to try and look out for all these people. There was a good number of months (where) my own mother, I didn’t see her. We’ve to be conscious of all of these people that we were minding, vulnerable people.

“So, it put pressure if you do see, or hear, that other counties are doing something.

“It brings pressure because you might have players saying, ‘Jesus, why aren’t we doing this?’ And that then brings pressure on. But, we are where we are with it now.”



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