The Gaelic Athletic Association's central council meets today in unscheduled session to discuss the various disciplinary embarrassments that have befallen the current season, hardly a month into the championship. Nickey Brennan, the association's president, is to be commended for recognising swiftly the gravity of the situation by convening the meeting.
Yet the question arises: what can be usefully done in a few hours today that has not already been attempted in the past few years of rules reform and structural change? In recent weeks there has been much comment about the contributory factors to the GAA's recurring difficulties in this area and the unruly culture within the association has been highlighted. This does not express itself in widespread anarchy and uncontrollable disorder, but it appears to inhibit the consistent imposition of reasonable penalties for indiscipline and infraction of rules.
Lack of respect for rules and those appointed to enforce them is clearly evident in the frequency with which team managers at elite, inter-county level use their high profiles to take often irrational pot-shots at referees and at disciplinary structures.
An unwillingness to admit to breaching rules, a refusal to accept the decisions of duly-appointed committees - even in the most blatant cases - and the nurturing of outsized grievances (as vividly demonstrated in yesterday's statement by recently-suspended Cork players) are other symptoms of this malaise.
It is ironic that the initiatives introduced to bring disciplinary structures into line with legal best practice have resulted not only in the welcome cessation of trips to the High Court in search of interlocutory injunctions but also in an apparent determination to test even the most straightforward suspensions before the independent tribunal established by the GAA, the Disputes Resolution Authority.
The Croke Park authorities cannot escape their own responsibility for the current state of affairs. Inconsistent application of rules and imposition of suspensions creates resentment among those who are punished and encourages others to believe that they will get away with foul play.
If there is a core concern at the heart of the central council debate, it should be to strengthen the connection between misbehaviour and punishment within Gaelic games. Only when it becomes unfailingly counter-productive to breach rules will discipline improve. Anything that can help to achieve that would be a welcome outcome of today's meeting.