Liam Griffin has taken umbrage at the criticism levelled at Davy Fitzgerald by former players in the wake of his controversial pitch encroachment during last Sunday's Allianz Hurling League semi-final.

While acknowledging that the Wexford manager over-stepped the mark, Griffin feels the eight-week ban proposed by the CCCC was harsh in the extreme.

"I do agree that the GAA have no alternative but to deal with Davy and give him a suspension, but I don't think any game should get sanitised," the 1996 All-Ireland winning manager told Game On on RTE 2FM.

"Davy is a character and I think hurling needs characters but they can't go outside the rules of the game and unfortunately Davy did and he'll be suspended for it. I think the severity of it is a bit much. I think a yellow card is appropriate and he should get some form of suspension but not for eight weeks, and he should be warned that the next time he does it, he'll get more than eight weeks.

"I'm a bit disturbed by the amount of people and ex-players who are really putting the boot into Davy for the last couple of days.

"That's disappointing because these fellas know, as I know, that we've all been involved in incident like this. Does that make it right? Of course it doesn't make it right.

"I am disappointed by the vindictiveness of some people towards a man who is bringing so much to hurling, that they want him suspended... and that is overly biased.

"I might be overly-biased on the other side because I'm from Wexford, but this was all a consequence (of a refereeing mistake).

"I'm sure the GAA have done this by the book, but I would call for calm and give him a rap across the knuckles. I do think they should look at it and say eight weeks is a bit harsh, give him four weeks and say that the next time, he'll get 12.

"I think that would be something more measured."

Tweet

Most Read Stories