The GAA is to establish a sub-committee to examine a variety of disciplinary problems that led to major controversies this summer. It is the brainchild of the president Seán McCague who announced his attentions at a recent Central Council meeting.
Among the matters expected to be addressed is the issue of county players escaping suspension for incidents arising from club matches, anomalies in the overall suspension system and a reform of the way video evidence is processed.
In relation to video evidence there is a growing opinion within the GAA that the current system leaves the association open to legal challenge. At present the Games Administration Committee view videotapes of match controversies and frame charges accordingly. The committee then tries the charge as well as prosecuting it.
It is felt that such procedure leaves the GAC's decisions open to litigation and it is likely that a new body will have to be established - a type of video commissioner's committee - to compile evidence and then prosecute the charge. GAC will then hear the case and the defence before reaching a decision.
McCague has been involved in some of the other matters to be considered. Most notably he handed down a presidential ruling in August to the effect that straight red cards could not be rescinded except by video evidence.
This was a response to a number of controversies during the championships in which county players were exonerated over incidents that had led to their dismissal in club matches. The evidence adduced in these cases was an admission of error by the referee involved.
In the most notorious case Kerry captain Darragh Ó Sé was exculpated after receiving a straight red card in a club match. He was then able to play in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork, a fixture he would have missed had a minimum four-week suspension been imposed.
There were similar cases with underage players in Wexford and Tipperary whose minor hurler John Boland secured an interlocutory injunction against his suspension, which was the first one imposed after McCague's ruling.
Boland subsequently played in the All-Ireland final on the grounds that the court felt he would have no adequate relief if the full injunction were to be granted after the final was played. Needless to say once the match was over, the action was dropped.
The body will be announced shortly, probably after next weekend's Special Congress, and is expected to report by the end of January so that any of its recommendations requiring rule changes can be drafted in time for inclusion on the clár of next spring's annual congress.
Another item likely to be considered is the anomaly whereby players receiving a straight red card in the first All-Ireland semi-finals in both football and hurling can serve a four-week suspension before the final but players committing the same offence in the following week's semi-final would stand suspended.
Thankfully this has not happened for the past two years in which the games' calendar has made such a potential injustice possible.
Other grey areas that will figure include the application of the blood rule and any consequent miscalculation of the number of replacements to be used.
