A couple of weeks back, I had a conversation with a friend about the Great Replacements Miscount down in Cork. Although a follower of Dublin's progress he wouldn't be a GAA partisan and advanced the argument that in Gaelic games the rules don't matter. I argued against this, but with decreasing conviction as I tried to reconcile Cork's breach of the Official Guide with the certainty that they wouldn't be subject to the stipulated penalty.

Corroborative evidence for his point of view has since come thick and fast. Justice is frequently not done in disciplinary matters but almost more importantly it is frequently seen not to be done.

At the time of writing there is no indication what's going to happen in Kerry about Darragh Ó Sé's red card. Maybe the county board will do the right thing and stick by their referee's decision; maybe they won't. If Ó Sé is cleared it matters little what form the whitewash takes. The county board will have been diminished by the contrivance. If the correct suspension is handed down, credit will be due for acting honourably in difficult circumstances and the county's footballing status will have been honoured.

But in a way it's irrelevant because the Kerry County Board should not have the final say in whether arguably their best player this season is suspended ahead of an All-Ireland semi-final. Current disciplinary structures within the GAA are unsatisfactory in two principal respects.

There is the lack of, firstly, competition-specific suspensions and secondly match-based bans. Two examples suffice. There was the two-week suspension picked up by Down's Greg Blaney in a football match against Derry. He was back for the replay and the only team that suffered in his absence was the county's hurlers, who lined out without him in the interim.

Then there was the case of Westmeath's Anthony Coyne, who was sent off in a drawn match against Wexford and incurred a four-week suspension. In that period of time he missed three matches. Whether a player misses a match or not depends on his team's programme. A Kilkenny or Tipperary player picking up a four-week suspension next Sunday will miss the All-Ireland final. Had a Clare player committed exactly the same offence, he would have been clear to play - simply because his semi-final took place first.

Suspensions should punish primarily the individual who committed the offence but also the team whom he sought to advantage by breaching the relevant rule. Aside from this theoretical basis for separating misbehaviour at club and county level, there are the practicalities as illustrated by the Ó Sé case in Kerry. Asking a county to suspend one of its principal players ahead of a big match is hardly conducive to satisfactory administration of justice.

This isn't something peculiar to Kerry. The county just happens to be the latest in a long line of counties for whom the temptation to play fast and loose with the rules arises. Three years ago Galway turned a blind eye after a referee had been knocked over by an important county player. Four years ago Clare undermined the suspension of Colin Lynch by deferring the county championships until his time was served (this would be another case where a separation of county and club for disciplinary purposes would have had an impact).

BEHIND all these actions lay a basic belief that the rules don't matter when self-interest is at stake. It is a variation on the old theme that objectivity does not enjoy widespread respect within Gaelic games. Whether in comment or officiating, the neutral zone is generally not well-regarded by partisans.

There are the other areas where objectivity suffers. The administration of rules on the field by referees, or off the field by committees, is often inconsistent and by giving rise to outraged protests based on relativism, does little to encourage respect for an unbending and impartially-administered set of rules.

It is not surprising that Kerry has already heard the refrain about "Frank Murphy looking after Cork so why shouldn't we look after our own". To an extent the Cork county secretary is a victim of his own forensic success. In a number of unpromising situations he has managed to secure improbable verdicts. So the cry goes around that Cork get things fixed.

There is, however, no comparison between counties using their own powers to evade the consequences of breaching rules and the success of Murphy in advocating his case in a higher forum. He is not culpable if - as in the recent case - the Munster Council bizarrely concurs with an argument that the 21st player introduced in a match is in fact the 20th. Nor does he practise some sort of irresistible voodoo. Despite a pyrotechnic display at Central Council last year he was unable to do anything about Larry Tompkins's sideline ban - simply because GAC chairman Paraic Duffy calmly put up a better argument.

But the GAC have been inconsistent recently. Antrim's Liam Watson will be rightly called to account for his shockingly premeditated clatter on Paul Ormonde but Ormonde's slap at Watson and Brian Lohan's striking across Eugene Cloonan were not pursued by the committee.

It may not have been a wilful averting of the committee's gaze - both cases were considered - but it was very unfortunate that the justice being done is being seen to be done to a young hurler from a county outside the elite loop, no matter that his behaviour was inexcusable.

Similarly over the weekend, Clare's great win was overshadowed by the awful injury sustained by Gerry Quinn. There are suggestions that the badly broken hand resulted from a late challenge or deliberate blow. Of course these should be investigated and if substantiated, severely dealt with but some of the strident statements coming out of the county resonate uneasily.

Clare must know they were lucky to have Brian Lohan available given the video evidence against him, and during the match incidents could have rebounded against them. It would be seemly to pass no remarks even if the distaste for investigations - so marked four years ago - has abated in the county.

In the long term the most satisfactory way to uphold discipline is to dismantle the GAC as currently constituted. There should be separate commissions to arrange fixtures and implement discipline. They should be small, no more than four members, and convened on a permanent or long-term basis. The greater the distance from the grassroots, the better.

If acceptance of rules and their imposition does not percolate from the bottom, it must be imposed from the top. At the moment neither is happening satisfactorily.