Citing body would ultimately be the best solution when it comes to enforcing discipline

EVERYONE KNOWS the old argument. Consistency of enforcement is important but you still shouldn’t break rules because someone else gets away with it. You can’t tell the gardaí­ as your breathalyser starts to smoke that there were lads going in the other direction who’d had twice as much as you.

That’s in the real world. In the world of Gaelic games where the connection between misbehaviour and punishment is at times as easy to grasp as quantum physics, consistency of enforcement has become paradoxically a formidable weapon in the armoury of those trying to evade deserved censure.

But there is equally a developing problem in justifying sporadic acts of enforcement when similar infractions get treated quite differently depending on circumstances.

Consequently all 50,000 of us in Croke Park last Sunday knew that when Meath’s Brian Farrell was bundled (or punched) over by Darragh Ó Sé there was no chance on earth of a suspension. This wasn’t to do with the merits of the incident, which were admittedly ambiguous, but the fact that it just wouldn’t have been conscionable.

A week previously John Miskella, albeit under provocation, hit out at Brian McGuigan and struck the Tyrone player. Referee John Bannon traipsed down to one of his Hill 16 umpires, Peter O’Reilly, and having consulted him returned to issue a yellow card to the Cork half back.

You had to wonder what O’Reilly said to his referee. It wouldn’t be his call to recommend a yellow card; he would have simply described what happened.

One player hit another. It was up to Bannon to issue a red card or do nothing if the umpire hadn’t seen an infraction. A yellow card made no sense.

Asking the referee to review his decision, which is the only action the Central Competitions Control Committee can take, was the next step.

Unfortunately this is becoming an unreliable methodology. Two years ago Cavan referee Brian Crowe refused to review a yellow card in almost identical circumstances issued to another Cork half back, Noel O’Leary, for hitting Meath’s Graham Geraghty and as a result saved the player from missing the All-Ireland final.

Crowe has had few big matches since but that precedent didn’t influence Bannon, whose last match before retirement was the Cork-Tyrone semi-final, leaving him free to do what he wanted. He declined to review the decision and Miskella is free to play on Sunday fortnight.

There was widespread approval of the decision not to charge Miskella. A player in his 30s whose career has been disrupted by injury, he has had a super championship.

But the decision not to make him accountable for his actions had a serious effect. It made it virtually impossible for anyone in last Sunday’s Kerry-Meath semi-final to be suspended on video evidence. Had some incident made that unavoidable there would have been uproar in Kerry.

There is a view among some members of the GAA that no player should miss an All-Ireland final through suspension. This permeates into officialdom.

Bannon and Crowe weren’t the first referees to balk at having to take personal responsibility for a player missing a final – Michael Monahan ducked out of giving John McEntee a red card in the 2003 semi-final against Donegal after the Armagh man had elbowed an opponent in front of him – and in a way who’d blame them? There would be no thanks for doing the right thing, just a storm of recrimination, hand wringing and special pleading.

But the fact is a player who commits a red-card offence knows what he is doing and can have no complaints when the prescribed sanction is applied.

One man who must be watching the developments of the past two weeks with a wistful air is Tipperary’s Brian O’Meara. As his county gets ready for its first All-Ireland in eight years O’Meara will remember well the lead-up to the last one. Having become involved – uncharacteristically – in a digging match with Wexford’s Liam Dunne the wing forward ended up suspended for the final.

As can be seen from the length of time it’s taken the county to get back to an All-Ireland, this was a devastating suspension, as it ruled him out of the big day and the honour of being part of a winning team. As a punishment it was, however, fully within the rules and fair. O’Meara had to bite the bullet despite predictable hue and cry, including a national newspaper campaign (complete with badges) to lift the ban but he could be forgiven a pang of resentment when he sees what’s happened in the meantime.

It has by and large been a quiet summer for discipline on the playing field. The new CCCC and Central Hearings Committee have functioned carefully and effectively and discipline has been more consistently applied.

That happier state of affairs has been qualified by recent events. A better way of handling unpopular decisions would surely be to have a citing commission that would do its work quickly and consistently.

Referring to the proposal for such a body, made by the Queen’s Belfast legal academic Dr Jack Anderson, GAA director general Páraic Duffy in his annual report last April said: “These proposals merit serious consideration. In my view, however, given that our current system needs some more time to “bed down” we should give our incoming committees time to operate within the current parameters before contemplating further re-construction.

“The incoming committees will benefit from improvements in procedure that have been incorporated by the Rule Book Task Force in the new Disciplinary Handbook and that draw on recommendations from DRA (Disputes Resolution Authority) adjudications on recent cases. By the end of this year it will be clear whether our current disciplinary system requires a further overhaul or not.

“While our disciplinary structures are a source of constant debate, issues of disciplinary breakdown continue to have a negative impact on the image of our association. It is important to put this into context. There is no doubt that discipline in our games has improved considerably over the past 20 years.

“That said, any incident of unacceptable behaviour that is not adequately dealt with is hugely damaging to our reputation and image. There is an onus on all our units to show courage and leadership in ensuring that disciplinary rules and procedures are fully and fairly applied in all instances of serious indiscipline.”

That call to allow the new committees time to settle was reasonable and their performance has been impressive but it is clear the decision made some years ago to force the CCCC to ask referees to review their decisions instead of simply over-riding them when manifestly incorrect has created a paralysis when it comes to enforcing discipline in semi-finals, where we now almost have established precedents for amnesties.

The CCCC should take back that authority under rule but in the circumstances it’s hard not to believe that a citing body would ultimately be the best solution.