The GAA's decision not to suspend Dublin Kevin O'Brien left Ciaran McKeever feeling frustrated.

The Armagh centre back was handed a four-week ban for giving the verbals to Louth's Brian White as the Cooley man squared up to take a free from close to the sideline at the Athletic Grounds on March 16th (McKeever, who was injured, was acting as team runner at the time).

He points out that while he himself was suspended for "something that was more likely to have happened than not happened", O'Brien, in complete contrast, escaped censure as the case against him could not be proven:

"I don't like to see any player getting suspended but it is a sore point. I was annoyed with the suspension I got and the terms, the way it ended," McKeever is quoted in today's Irish Examiner.

"I have still yet to know what I was suspended for. I was suspended for something that was more likely to have happened than not happened and I was told that common sense is not in the rule book.

"I don't like to see any player get suspended but I think, in my eyes, I was shafted and the proof of the pudding ended up last week that I was right.

"I told them what happened in the match, I was shouting 'watch the posts, watch the posts' while a Louth player was taking a free-kick and that is what I got four weeks for.

"You are a marked man every time you go out and play a game of football and that is something that you have to deal with. I will still go out and play the game I like to play and whatever happens, happens."

McKeever has also claimed that he was headhunted and that he knew he was going to get nailed by the powers that be. "The most annoying point for me is, and I am not afraid to say it, in January I knew I was being head hunted

An intercounty referee told me the first chance they would get they were going to nail me. That is the sad point. A top intercounty referee - the first chance that was got I would be nailed. Whether that is with regards to the Laois thing last year I don't know." Tweet

Most Read Stories