We will know later today what the Central Competition Controls Committee of the GAA has decided in relation to the AIB Club Championship Final between Kilmacud Crokes and Watty Graham’s Glen.

Both clubs were represented by two members of their own committees at a hearing in Croke Park last night and the five members of the committee will advise them both today of what their ruling is.

The referee’s report was also considered though it is understood this made no reference to the incident that left Crokes with 17 players on the pitch for a short period of time, 16 of them actively defending the last attack of the game where Glen needed a goal to win it at the death, just as Kilcoo had done against the same opponents last year.

That there was a breach of the rules is not in doubt. Then it comes down to whether there is any mitigation and whether it impacted the result of the game.

The answer to both is maybe. The Committee should have been able to hear a recording of any communication between the officials on the sideline and the referee around making sure that Dara Mullin in particular should leave the pitch having been replaced by Conor Casey.

It is self-evident that the referee, once aware of the excess numbers should have simply ordered the ’45 to be retaken but that didn’t happen.

There is a possibility that it will be the referee that carries the blame and that the result is allowed to stand but that would set a precedent that dilutes the most basic of match rules that you cannot exceed the maximum number of allowable players on the field.

Regulations of how games can be played and resolved are only as useful as the confidence that both sides are subject to the same rules.

The Derry club themselves probably just want this to go away now, certainly, that is the case at Crokes where there has been growing anger in the intervening week and a seeming decision that if a replay is ordered they will play no part.

Would Glen then turn up, score a point and take home the title or would the GAA be left in a position of declaring the match as unplayed and having the tournament unclaimed for 2022? That would leave Kilcoo as the reigning champions for another year, as was the case in a number of tournaments that were unfinished through Covid.

Hardly the best way to conclude but at least the rules would have been upheld, the world would keep turning and the focus would switch back to Inter-County games.

We will know the answer to the next stage of the saga around lunchtime today.