Cooney indicates new rule proposals will return

INCOMING GAA president Christy Cooney has indicated that the disciplinary reforms, which narrowly failed to secure approval at Saturday’s annual congress debate, are likely to be considered again in the future.

Speaking at his first media briefing after taking office, the former Cork chair said: “New proposals will probably return in some format – indeed they could well be back on the agenda next year. They got a 63.8 per cent majority so it’s obvious that there’s a serious mood for change. We’ll reflect on this decision before deciding what to do next.”‘

Director general Páraic Duffy’s reaction also focused on what will be Croke Park’s next move in the battle against indiscipline and cynical fouling.

“It’s disappointing. They came close so we’ll have to examine where we go from here and how we get them above the two-thirds line.”

Cooney also said that there would in future be no significant fixtures scheduled to clash with congress and he acknowledged that the All-Ireland under-21 football semi-finals had helped contribute to fewer delegates voting on the rule changes than had participated in the association trustee election on Saturday morning.

The debate on the experimental rules and their principal recommendation that a number of fouls categorised as highly disruptive be punishable by a yellow card and dismissal for the remainder of the match although with a replacement allowed came to an agonising conclusion for the reformers, led by Liam O’Neill, who chaired the sponsoring task force.

Although resoundingly approved by 177-100, the proposals failed by eight votes to secure the necessary two-thirds majority for inclusion in the rule book.

Despite early evidence that there was a mood for compromise – a desire to continue the experiment at intercounty level during this year’s senior championships – was floated by the first three speakers, Peter Keogh (Wicklow), Tipperary’s Barry O’Brien and John Connolly from Monaghan, who had all been mandated to vote against the universal adoption of the rules, GAA president Nickey Brennan pushed ahead with a straight vote on the listed proposal.

Objections to an extension of the experiment were voiced by Meath’s Brendan Dempsey and Frank Murphy from Cork. Brennan concluded: “I don’t think we should experiment during the championship.”

Liam O’Neill had outlined the origin of his task force’s proposals and the exhaustive consultation that had gone into their formulation and promotion. Referring to a previous package of reforms that had been derailed in 2005 because of hostility from county team managers, he said that the GAA “had shirked its responsibility”.

The proposal before congress he said would “reward the skilful player” as well as make categorisation of fouls more straightforward for referees. Accepting the reforms, he added, would mean: “You can go back to the clubs and schools, look into the eyes of children and tell them that if they work hard and learn these skills, we will protect you. Voting against is to go back to the same children and say we took the easy way out and shirked our responsibility.”

Speakers in favour of the proposals included Louth’s Paddy McMahon, who said: “We should make the decision for the good of the GAA for the next 125 years.”

Answering the charge that the proposals removed physicality from the games, Derry chair Séamus McCloy asked: “What is manly about pulling down and tripping opponents?” His Tyrone counterpart Pat Darcy opposed: “There is more than adequate sanction within the rules. The issue to deal with is a problem with referees. Our worry about these proposals is how they would pan out at club level.”

Europe delegate Tony Bass said that 99 per cent of players in a recent Amsterdam tournament had preferred playing under the proposed rules after an experiment in which matches were played under the standard rules for one half and the recommended reforms in the next.

Martin McEvoy (Kildare) said that what had been described at his county’s deliberations on the subject as BCD (blatant, cynical and deliberate) fouls had “no place in our game”.

Players’ representative Dessie Farrell opposed, making clear that he was reflecting the views of his constituency, who in a poll had voted overwhelmingly against permanent adoption of the rules.

Elaborating afterwards he explained the stance and joined the ranks of those who saw an extended experiment during the championship as a compromise option.

“I was genuinely optimistic at the beginning (of the experiment) and thought the dissatisfaction would settle down after a couple of weeks once refs and players got used to the rules. But there was still unhappiness by the end. Consistency was an issue but it always has been. If the old rules had been consistently applied we mightn’t have been having this debate.

“But change isn’t off the agenda and I thought maybe the extended experiment would have been a good idea because championship is the litmus test of rule changes. There was a get-out there definitely.”