O'Neill to kick-start full football review

GAELIC GAMES:THE GAA is to establish an independent body to conduct a root-and-branch review of the state of football. It will consider a broad range of issues from a variety of perspectives and will be announced together with the various committees due to be named by new president Liam O'Neill at tomorrow's Central Council meeting.

A high-profile figure has been approached to chair the group but isn’t being identified until his agreement is confirmed. The task will be to identify issues in the playing of the game and how it has evolved and present conclusions, which it is hoped will form the basis of a national debate.

“It will be independent in that I’m not going to influence any of the deliberations,” O’Neill told The Irish Times yesterday. “I see my role as a facilitator rather than a driver of this issue and I would like as many people as possible to be part of a debate on where we’re going. Are we happy with the game at the moment? I’ve expressed opinions about protecting skilful players and prioritising catching and kicking, but they’re just my views. It’s important that as many views as possible are heard. Football belongs to everyone not just to those at elite levels and the committee membership will reflect that.

“Can we have an open debate on this and accept different views? I’d hope that there’ll be conclusions by the end of 2012 and that they’ll set the parameters of a wider debate.”

O’Neill departed from the tradition of revealing the chairs of his new committees at annual congress two weeks ago, instead opting to put his nominees before the next ordinary meeting of Central Council. The new president has attracted controversy in the interim over comments made at the press conference conducted just after his inauguration as president – or rather over the misleading representation of those remarks as a blunt dismissal of football as boring.

Asked at the conference did he believe the game was in trouble, he replied: “Just when you think it is in bother, you get a great game of football; that happens time and time again. If it lasted for a full season we’d nearly be better off but you get a good game maybe in an All-Ireland final and people say ‘my God, what are you on about? This is great’. But definitely the defensiveness of the game at the moment, the overuse of the hand pass is slowing it down and it’s boring. It’s not what our supporters want – we like physical contact and we like the game moving forward.”

The remarks have nonetheless led to criticism of O’Neill for undermining the association’s most popular game. Earlier this week Tyrone manager Mickey Harte took issue with the idea that the game was in difficulty.

“We need to get on with the business of being more positive in promoting what we have to offer,” said Harte, “instead of bringing it down and talking it down. I don’t know of any other organisation that does this, in business or sport or anywhere else, that decry their own product.

“We should be aiding our own products. I’m a football man only, but all the products we have are good for the people to see, to enjoy, to be involved in. And we should have lots more people at them, if we market them right.”

O’Neill declined to get involved in public exchanges on the subject but is anxious that as wide a discussion as possible should take place. “I haven’t expressed any views recently that I haven’t put forward previously,” he said. “This isn’t about criticising the game; it’s about the association looking at it and working out what areas – if any – might need help.”

Meanwhile the marketing drive promised at this month’s congress by the GAA to counter the impact of international sporting events this summer is to include an initiative next month whereby every county in the All-Ireland championships will hold an open session at the same time on the same day.

A request from Liam O’Neill and GAA director general Páraic Duffy was emailed earlier this week from Croke Park to all counties asking that they organise the open event on Friday evening, May 11th, when players will be made available to local media for interviews, as well as to meet supporters and children.

“We’re confident that this will be a success,” said Duffy.

“It’s intended as a promotion within the counties to let everyone know the championship’s starting.”

Asked if the clash with Munster’s likely Celtic League semi-final against Ospreys, which would be televised, was a problem in certain counties, the director general said: “No, I don’t believe it will affect what we’re hoping to do.”