The GAA unanimously passed a raft of new disciplinary measures at annual congress in Killarney on Saturday.
The new rules provide for new committees, the Central Competitions Committee and the Hearings Committee to take over from the Central Games Administration Committee and the Central Disciplinary Committee.
The purpose of the changes is to streamline administrative procedures to reduce the scope for disciplinary appeals based on spurious technicalities.
Proposed by the chair of the Rules Book Task Force (RBTF), Frank Murphy, and explained in detail by lawyers Micheál O'Connell and Liam Keane of the RBTF, the proposals, released to the public last month, were accepted in full.
On a quiet day of a very quiet congress, the task force reforms were the main business of the motions debates. A number of motions concerning age restrictions for various playing levels were withdrawn in favour of the RBTF formulation that had been proposed earlier in the day but a decision deferred until the issue came up in the afternoon.
A Louth motion that weaker hurling counties be allowed recruit players, who can declare for the counties of their parents' birth or their county of residence was passed. The county benefiting would have to be playing below the MacCarthy Cup level and would be restricted to fielding five hurlers qualified in this way.
The facility for third-level students to play for their college during the year immediately after graduation was removed on the proposal of the Eglish club in Tyrone. A further restriction proposed by the Dublin County Board to the effect that only undergraduates could represent colleges was rejected.
A radical proposal from the St Mary's, Rosslare, club in Wexford proposed that the All-Ireland series be brought forward by a month with hurling and football finals in the second and fourth week of August was defeated despite some heartfelt debate on the plight of clubs trying to discharge fixtures in the face of a growing intercounty season.
The Laois County Board was successful in pushing a proposal to tweak the relegation provisions in the All-Ireland hurling championships.
As a result there will only be one relegation play-off, to be played between the bottom-placed sides in each of the qualifier groups. This replaces the system whereby the bottom two teams in the groups played each other in crossover fixtures with the defeated teams playing off for survival.
Congress elected two new representatives of congress - formerly trustees - on Saturday afternoon. Albert Fallon of Longford topped the poll with 117 votes whereas Antrim's Joe O'Boyle came in second on 93, just ahead of London's John Lacey with 92.
NICKEY BRENNAN'S COMMITTEES AND CHAIRS: Central Competitions Committee: Jimmy Dunne (Wicklow), Hearings Committee: John O'Reilly (Armagh), Central Appeals Committee: Jim Forbes (Cork), Hurling Development Committee: Ned Quinn (Kilkenny), Coaching and Games Development: Christy Cooney (Cork), Organisation, Planning and Development Committee: Con Hogan (Tipperary), Financial Management Committee: Gene Duffy (Armagh), Infrastructure Committee: Dan McCartan (Down), National GAA Audit Committee: Páraic Duffy (Monaghan).
