Disciplinary measures against violent behaviour to be debated in GAA Congress

An array of disciplinary measures designed as deterrents against violent misbehaviour on GAA pitches will be debated at next weekend’s annual GAA congress at Croke Park.

The association published its motions list on Friday afternoon.

The suite of proposals advanced by the association’s disciplinary committees were approved by last December’s Central Council meeting and were initiated in response to concerns about the targeting of match officials and other outbreaks of disorder during controversial club matches last autumn.

Included is increasing the top suspension from two to five years and the doubling of penalties for team officials at underage matches.

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Also proposed is the doubling of suspensions when a proposed penalty is challenged unless the grounds are considered by the hearings committee “not frivolous or vexatious and not solely based on procedural or technical arguments” and the penalising of club chairs and secretaries if a team official breaches the terms of a suspension.

The apparently intractable issue of age grades will receive plenty of attention with a number of counties – Derry, Down, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Tyrone and Waterford – proposing the return of “even age grades”, under-18, -16 and -14. Kerry club Parnell’s propose adding under-12 to that.

A national switch to uneven years, under-17, -15 and -13, did not get the support of Central Council at the end of last year and Central Council has since given counties carte blanche to organise their underage competitions as they feel best suits them and that may affect some of the more directive motions on the clár.

Wexford propose that the ring-fencing of senior players from the under-20 grade be relaxed. Previously a player appearing for the county seniors could not then be considered for the age grade, a provision that has drawn criticism, including Limerick manager John Kiely, whose selection of Cathal O’Neill for the seniors impacted on the county’s prospects when they narrowly lost the All-Ireland final to Kilkenny.

Kerry and the Munster Council put forward a solution to the potential problem for the county were it to win the Joe McDonagh Cup. At present the provision is that the county would have to contest a playoff with the bottom team in the Munster round robin rather than be automatically promoted.

The suggested solution is that if Kerry were to win the McDonagh they would go into Munster and that the bottom team in the provincial championship with six teams (usually Leinster but in the suggested case, Munster) be relegated.

That would clear up dissatisfaction within Kerry that they would under current rule be denied automatic promotion in the event if winning the McDonagh Cup.

Congress will consider 62 motions. The required majority is 60 per cent with the exception of two motions: number 11 from Wexford proposing that all clubs be obliged to field at least one juvenile hurling team and number 35 from the Rules Advisory Committee, providing for a redesign of the Official Guide and arranging for a special congress later in the year to consider its adoption.