{"id":490211,"date":"2026-06-09T07:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490211\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T07:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:12:16","slug":"jack-mccaffrey-says-ger-brennan-has-every-right-to-clarify-his-position-after-jarlath-burns-comments-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490211\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack McCaffrey says Ger Brennan \u2018has every right\u2019 to clarify his position after Jarlath Burns comments \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack McCaffrey<\/a> says he completely understands why Ger Brennan<\/a> felt the need to come out and clarify his position in relation to the debate around the 12-week suspension he is currently serving.<\/p>\n

Brennan, who will return to the Dublin sideline against Cavan on Sunday, released a statement through his solicitor last Wednesday in response to comments made by GAA president Jarlath Burns<\/a> \u2013 who had said the incident that led to the Dublin manager\u2019s ban was not comparable with the recent flashpoint involving Donegal manager Jim McGuinness in Killarney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ger has acknowledged and apologised and held his hand up early doors. Probably felt that his punishment was overly harsh and he pursued his appeals \u2013 as far as I could see, quietly. And was unsuccessful in them,\u201d said McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then didn\u2019t say a peep really … until he did. Which I think was prompted by a particularly verbose member of the GAA hierarchy talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think he [Ger] has every right [to come out and make his point]. Like, he did something wrong, he was punished, he accepted his punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ger has kind of behaved really admirably around the whole thing, in terms of just keeping the head down in so far as he could.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCaffrey, who played alongside Brennan for the Dubs, feels the suspension has had an impact on Dublin\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a huge amount of sympathy for Ger in feeling that he was overly, harshly punished. But I don\u2019t think it means that everybody should get a 12-week ban \u2013 like, two wrongs don\u2019t make a right in that instance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a case-by-case thing. It\u2019s not an anti-Dublin thing at all. And I am a firm believer that anyone involved in the GAA at any level is doing it with the best of intentions and doesn\u2019t go out to treat anyone unfairly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d give everyone the benefit of the doubt there. But I can completely sympathise with Ger feeling very disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think particularly just in a first season when you\u2019re trying to find an identity as a gang with new players and everything like that it, I just felt sorry for them having to deal with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think Dean [Rock] in fairness has done a remarkable job. I\u2019m sure he didn\u2019t see himself in that role six months ago or well, whatever, 12 weeks ago even.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think I think they\u2019ll have some regrets over it because it\u2019ll have affected the year, and they\u2019ll just need to kind of look back on it, obviously make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again. And deal with it as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCaffrey feels if the GAA are determined to eradicate such incidents, then consistency in imposing the rule is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have a complete zero tolerance of any aggression or violence between non-playing people,\u201d added McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the correct approach to have. It just shouldn\u2019t happen. But I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to stamp it out by making an example of one person, and then just going on as it were. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike you kind of see with dissent now and the ball being brought forward 50 yards, you know every time you speak back to a referee, that\u2019s going to happen. I think people need to understand, a lot of players had balls brought forward 50 yards at the start. And you quickly learn that if every time this happens, punishment X is implemented, then it just stops. So, I think if that\u2019s the approach they\u2019re taking, then they should take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 McCaffrey was speaking at the launch of PTSB\u2019s new sponsorship of Dublin club leagues and championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack McCaffrey says he completely understands why Ger Brennan felt the need to come out and clarify his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2179,4183,2181,61,60,210617,59576,112],"class_list":["post-490211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-gaa","tag-ger-brennan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-mccaffrey","tag-jarlath-burns","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}