The recommendations of the GAA's Disciplinary Rules and Procedures sub-committee may face a tougher passage than thought at next month's annual Congress, writes Seán Moran.

The recommendations of the GAA's Disciplinary Rules and Procedures sub-committee may face a tougher passage than thought at next month's annual Congress. That's the view of Leinster secretary Michael Delaney who was present at last week's meeting of the provincial council where sub-committee chairperson Paraic Duffy and Dan McCartan, chair of the National Referees Committee, conducted a question-and-answer session with delegates.

"I'd say it will be bits and pieces," is Delaney's assessment of the recommendations' chances of success. "Some will go through and there'll be resistance to others.

"The composition of the review group (the sub-committee) would suggest the report would go through and I was surprised it didn't go through an open door.

"There was a lot of concern about the December-January suspensions' period - both as it exists now and the proposed changes."

This refers to the practice of treating the two closed season months as inoperable for the serving of suspensions unless the suspended player has a club championship match scheduled for this time of year. The sub-committee propose to do away with the exception on the grounds it affects very few and has caused a great deal of confusion, particularly last year.

The other area of concern was the proposed separation of club and county suspensions in the case of less serious offences.

This proposal addressed a major anomaly, which sees blameless teams suffer for the conduct of members in different competitions and sometimes, even different codes. The separation is subject to the suspension in question being a category C offence, one that carries a four-week ban - as opposed to more serious category A or B offences.

"Delegates made the point that," according to Delaney, "you couldn't have a player committing a reasonably serious offence in Croke Park one week and lining out for his club the next. An underlying point here was that all players are club players, just that some have the privilege of playing with their county and that an All-Ireland should be no different to a club match in this context.

"Paraic Duffy and Dan McCartan made the point that they hadn't come to sell the proposals but explain and clarify them. They weren't looking for opinions and some delegates stayed quiet so you wouldn't know what way they felt about the issues."

Other aspects of the recommendations went down unambiguously well. The idea of an Arbitration Committee was praised but it will not depend on a motion to Congress, as it doesn't require a change of rule.

"There were quite a few things that just involved tidying up," according to Delaney. "Blood injuries were one example and there was a feeling the problems of last year were being sorted out. The Darragh Ó Sé rule for instance - I know it doesn't mention him - is being embodied in rule."

Blood substitutions are to be allowed come from any of the listed panel rather than the match panel of 20. This is to cope with a situation that has seen frequent confusion and apparent inability to count on the part of teams. It was, however, pointed out at the Leinster Council that this could lead to all 30 players taking part in a match.

The Ó Sé recommendation refers to Kerry captain Darragh Ó Sé who was cleared of a red-card offence committed when playing for his club after the referee changed his mind. This enabled the player to take part in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.

On the positive side there was widespread support for one of the report's provisions. "One point that seemed unanimous was support for clearing up the All-Ireland semi-final anomaly and there was a welcome for the one-match suspension."

This particular anomaly arises when players committing the same offence in different All-Ireland semi-finals end up with the same suspension but one misses the final and the other, whose offence was in the earlier match, doesn't. The proposal to address this recommends that a player picking up a four-week suspension in a semi-final should miss the final regardless of when it takes place.

Armagh's Ger Reid has retired from intercounty football because of a recurrent back injury. Reid was the county's first-choice full back in the Ulster Championship victories of 1999 and 2000 and last year was a member of the panel that won Armagh's first All-Ireland title.

TG4's GAA reality television programme Underdogs is looking for players to audition for a chance to take on the Dublin senior team. Players selected must not have represented their county beyond under-16 level. The successful applicants will be coached by former Dublin player and selector Brian Mullins, former Kerry captain and manager Micky Ned O'Sullivan and former Armagh captain Jarlath Burns. Anyone interested in applying should contact www.tg4.ie/underdogs or send a SAE to PO Box 5444, Dublin 18.