Provincial councils issue reports: Two provincial secretaries have criticised standards of discipline in Gaelic games. Michael Delaney of Leinster and John Prenty of Connacht made the remarks in reports to their annual conventions, which take place next Monday and Thursday respectively, writes Sean Moran GAA Correspondent

Delaney called for the association to address the behavioural issues at the heart of the problem.

"Our Árd Stiúrthóir, Liam Ó Maolmhichíl, has addressed this issue on numerous occasions in his reports to Congress. Heads have nodded sagely in agreement but that's as far as it has gone.

"Disciplinary Committees can only do so much - they have to contend with ambiguous rules, vested interests, a 'saw nothing heard nothing' mentality and a raft of other minor obstacles. We have to adopt a prevention rather than cure approach to this problem.

"Never before have such resources been put into coaching, promoting and developing our games among young people. We employ sports psychologists, dieticians, statisticians and image analysts at most age groups now in the GAA

"Perhaps we should now consider adding a behavioural expert to the list. At the moment most behaviour on pitches at underage level is a reflection of what happens on the big stage - imitation of the stars is a huge factor in young players' actions. We must continue to make sporting behaviour a key element of our games but, in tandem with this, we must stringently, and publicly, ensure that indiscipline, violence and verbal abuse has no place in hurling and Gaelic football."

Prenty focused attention on the experimental, disciplinary rules that were tried in last year's leagues. "Two thousand and five commenced with the proposals of the Playing Rules Task Force being experimented with, initially, in the subsidiary competitions in hurling and football.

"The hard work of the committees charged with drawing up the proposed playing rule changes was stymied by certain high-profile team managers and media personnel. In my opinion we had the best leagues for decades, played in the proper spirit during which we had: more scores, more playing time, less frees and less cynical fouling. Yellow card offences were halved and there was a significant reduction in the number of red cards.

"It is a pity that a glorious opportunity to clean up our games and ensure that they are played in a fair and sportsmanlike manner was lost . . . Negative play and excessive fouling must be routed out of our games."

Delaney went on to discuss shortcomings in the GAA's rule book and the role of the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) in highlighting them, while acknowledging the Leinster Council was the first body to have a decision overturned by the authority.

"Our understanding of DRA is that they were put in place to prevent members or units heading to the courts in order to circumvent our Rules. Few could have foreseen how things would pan out. Beliefs which we held for years were found to have feet of clay while blatant indiscipline escaped censure because of frailties in our structures. It is clear from an initial examination of the early hearings by the DRA that some of our rules are flawed.

"There is a new cottage industry development in the underbelly of the GAA, ie a small group of people who have developed the ability to pick holes in any of our rules. This is a disturbing development and is no way connected to the DRA.

"My punch-line, if there is one, is that Central Council must immediately take serious steps to put our Rules in order."

Prenty also criticised the proposal to appoint a national hurling director, saying it would be a waste of resources.

"The plan of the HDC to employ a full-time national director of hurling did not receive favourable consideration within Connacht or in any of our counties. In the recently published National Hurling Development plan, all of the projects being proposed are of a coaching and games development nature and should come under the umbrella of the National Coaching and Games Development section in Croke Park.

"Putting a hurling hat on a person in an office in Croke Park will not lead to an increase in participation of one child in weaker counties. I am sure if we got a grant equivalent to the salary and expenses of such a person we could work wonders for the promotion of the game in our counties."

Delaney's report hit out at what he characterised as the Gaelic Players Association's pursuit of "financial gain for their members". "The concept of pay-for-play, no matter how it is described, is not a runner in our association."

Finally Delaney welcomed the opening up of Croke Park to rugby and soccer internationals.

"I have refrained from reference to this topic in my annual reports, for almost 15 years now, ie since I was famously told I 'would have the blood of Hogan on my hands' for suggesting the GAA should consider opening Croke Park to other codes.

"Now that Congress has spoken I simply want to state I welcome the decision."

Other topics addressed by Prenty: - Opposes the creation of elite player benefits under the Player Injuries scheme.

- Expresses concern over the proliferation of matches for weaker hurling counties, many of whose players have dual commitments.

- Calls for official directives to be followed by all units asking, "as we are presently constituted can we take any sanctions or are we a myriad of independent republics"?

Delaney: Commends the "renaissance of the interprovincial championships" due to "some lateral thinking by a small number of officials and an enthusiastic sponsor".

- Expresses concern Derry, like London last year, will prove too strong for the Nickey Rackard Cup.

- Cautions against "knee-jerk" reactions to UCD's involvement in the club championships.

Calls for the input of behavioural specialists to tackle indiscipline (Delaney)

Regrets the slow progress of moves to update the GAA rule book (Delaney)

Takes issue with the GPA's position on remunerating players, describing pay-for-play as "not a runner" (Delaney)

Welcomes the opening up of Croke Park (Delaney)

Regrets the failure to adopt the experimental disciplinary rules, tried in last year's National Leagues (Prenty)

Questions the proposal to appoint a National Director of Hurling (Prenty)

Opposes the creation of elite player benefits under the Player Injuries scheme (Prenty)