Wexford GAA has handed the maximum 96-week ban to St Joseph's mentor Glen McManus for an assault on referee Michael Lannigan and an umpire.
The incident occurred between St Joseph's and Our Lady's Island during a junior football match last month, which the club subsequently lost by a single point.
Ultimately, an investigation was marshalled by the Wexford Central Competitions Control Committee, leading to the maximum penalty imposed.
The club has also been hit with a one-thousand Euro fine, having previously reacted to the incident by imposing an indefinite ban on Mr McManus.
Maximum bans handed down by @OfficialWexGAA #rtegaahttps://t.co/tsfBs6XUcA
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) October 15, 2022
Wexford chairman Micheál Martin previously said that the GAA is now at a crisis point.
“There is an unacceptable level of questioning authority across society; in the GAA, it’s the challenging of referees,” Martin told RTÉ.
“You see it in professional sport at elite sport, and it trickles its way down.
“I think we’ve reached crisis point in this at the moment, and it’s something all policy makers both from ourselves and county level, right through to national level in terms of the association, but also policymakers in sport are going to have to sit down again and see how we can address this.
“We can’t pass the buck and say that Government can solve this, but I would like to see the policy makers across sport and in the relevant departments sit down together and see how we can address this issue. It’s incumbent on all of us to ensure we don’t have an ongoing physical or verbal threat to referees.”
In a separate incident in the county, a Naomh Éanna mentor had also received the maximum 96-week ban for an assault on referee Jimmy Heaney.
The incident occurred at the end of their Junior ‘B’ hurling championship game with Na Fianna Clonard.
