Hi °C | Lo °C Omagh St Enda’s team manager Paddy Crozier faces an anxious wait before he discovers just what playing resources he will have available to him for the re-fixed Tyrone senior football championship semi-final against Carrickmore on Saturday at Pomeroy (4.30pm).
It is expected that the Omagh club’s appeal to the powerful Disputes Resolution Authority to have the proposed suspensions against three players rescinded will be heard later in the week — possibly as early as tomorrow night — and until the outcome of this hearing is known Crozier will remain in the dark as to the composition of his line-up.
Michéal Gallagher, Stephen Mullan and Dara O’Neill were the three players served with the proposed bans following incidents that marred the closing stages of Omagh’s win over Ardboe in the Tyrone championship quarter-final.
Since then the Omagh club have appealed unsuccessfully to both the Tyrone Hearings Committee and the Ulster Council Hearings Committee to have the proposed suspensions overturned.
Now in what is a last throw of the dice they are to bring their plea to the DRA at a Dublin hearing the outcome of which could have major implications for the team’s chances of reaching the final. Irrespective of the decision arrived at by the DRA, Saturday’s match will go ahead and this means that, should this final appeal by Omagh prove abortive, then manager Crozier will be confronted with a selection headache.
The postponement of last Sunday’s game has granted him some slight breathing space in that Joe McMahon and Ronan O’Neill have another week in which to recover from injuries but with full-back Justin McMahon definitely out though suspension Crozier’s resources could be limited.
Coalisland are already through to the Tyrone final and will meet the winners of the Omagh St Enda’s v Carrickmore game at Healy Park on Sunday week.
