Following the fracas that broke out in their defeat to Armagh last Sunday week, Tyrone will be without four key players for Sunday's visit of Kildare to Omagh.
The loss of Kieran McGeary, Peter Harte, Padraig Hampsey and Michael McKernan could be costly for the All-Ireland champions, who have taken just one point from a possible six in Division One to date - with ties against Donegal, Dublin, Mayo and Kerry to come.
Donegal were the last All-Ireland champs to be relegated from the top tier in 2013.
Here are some of the high profile examples of mass suspensions over the years and how they affected the protagonists involved..
Dublin-Galway, 1983 All-Ireland SFC final
Four players, Dublin’s Brian Mullins, Ray Hazley and Ciaran Duff along with Tomas Tierney of Galway, were sent off in one of the most controversial games in GAA history.
Duff (above) received the harshest punishment of all with a 12-month ban though it was later reduced on appeal, while Mullins got five months and Hazley a month with Dubs boss Kevin Heffernan suspended for three months.
Dublin struggled in the subsequent League, picking up only one win and suffering relegation to Division Two.
Two Galway players, Tierney and Peter Lee, were hit with one-month bans but they topped Division Two and reached the League final, losing to Kerry.
later reduced on appeal, while Mullins got five months and Hazley a month with Dubs boss Kevin Heffernan suspended for 12 weeks.
Dublin struggled in the subsequent League, picking up only one win and suffering relegation to Division Two.
Two Galway players, Tierney and Peter Lee, were hit with one-month bans but the reached the NFL final.
Meath-Mayo, 1996 All-Ireland SFC final replay
An all-out brawl, which puts the recent Tyrone-Armagh skirmish in the ha’penny place, broke out early in the 1996 All-Ireland final replay with referee Pat McEnaney settling on Mayo’s Liam McHale and Colm Coyle of Meath as the main culprits, with both sent off.
Eight Meath players and seven from Mayo suffered bans totalling 38 months in the enquiry that followed. A weakened Meath finished sixth in Division One, as did Mayo in Division Two.
Tyrone-Dublin, 2006 National Football League
“If Paddy Russell was God Almighty he couldn’t have refereed that game today,” said Mickey Harte after the infamous ‘Battle of Omagh’, a game Russell considered abandoning.
Dublin’s Alan Brogan and Denis Bastick were sent off along with Tyrone pair Colin Holmes and Stephen O’Neill, while six players received eight-week bans and another a four-week suspension.
All seven had their suspensions quashed on a technicality. The farce proved to be a watershed in how the GAA administered justice, with the disciplinary process tightened considerably afterwards.
Cork-Clare, 2007 Munster SHC quarter-final
Players from both sides clashed as they emerged from the Thurles tunnel. The fact that children were forming a guard of honour for them made it even more unsightly.
Eight four-week bans were proposed after ‘Semplegate’, though Cork’s John Gardiner got a reprieve from the CHC.
Cork were severely weakened without Sean Og O hAilpin, Diarmuid O’Sullivan and Donal Og Cusack, losing to Waterford in the subsequent Munster semi-final, though Clare survived a qualifier against Antrim without Colin Lynch, Alan Markham, Andrew Quinn and Barry Nugent.
Dublin-Meath, 2008 National Football League
Five red cards were flashed at Parnell Park during an unseemly Division Two tie between the great Leinster rivals as Bernard Brogan, Paddy Andrews, Ciaran Whelan (all Dublin), Shane McAnarney and Niall McKeigue (both Meath) were dismissed.
A whopping 16 players were proposed for suspensions of up to two months while both county boards were hit with hefty fines.
Understrength Dublin then lost the Division Two final to Westmeath. Meath lost to Wexford without key men in the Leinster quarter-final.
