Warning of 'something more draconian'

The GAA won't be undertaking any immediate review of their disciplinary procedures at Saturday's Central Council meeting.

But as the fall-out from the Cork v Clare controversy rages on there will be a warning of "something more draconian" from GAA president Nickey Brennan, who yesterday called the specially convened meeting in the latest effort to address indiscipline.

For now, however, Brennan is holding fire - mainly because the Clare appeals against the suspensions arising from the pre-match incidents back on May 27th are to be heard tomorrow evening. In the meantime, Brennan has merely indicated the high level of his dissatisfaction.

"The meeting will concentrate on considering the issue of discipline, lack of respect for authority and the application of the current disciplinary structures and procedures by units within the parameters of the existing rules," read a statement from Croke Park.

"Brennan stated that he hoped that the meeting would lead to acceptance that indiscipline in the association cannot be tolerated and associated decisions continuously challenged and that a culture must be agreed by all units that the national interest of the GAA and its games must supersede local and sectional interests."

The GAA have also stated that Saturday's meeting is in no way a reaction to the criticisms of the disciplinary process made by Cork hurling manager Gerald McCarthy in the aftermath of Sunday's Munster semi-final defeat to Waterford.

"That has nothing to do with it," explained GAA press officer Fergal McGill. "The main issue here is that just because there is an appeal process in place it doesn't mean every county is obliged to follow it. "It seems there is an opinion out there that if there are three or four avenues of appeal then all of them should be used and it would be the same if there were 12 avenues. This is really about reminding all counties of their responsibility to the GAA, and Nickey Brennan will be warning them of that or else something more draconian may have to be considered."

The GAA's Management Committee will meet also on Saturday and put forward its views for consideration of Central Council. However, any potential review to the procedures won't be considered at this point.

Brennan denied all requests to comment on McCarthy's criticisms, which included a lengthy broadside against the GAA and media handling of the case after Sunday's defeat, and also a phone call to Brennan's mobile where he protested to the president over the treatment of the Cork players.

Clearly there are aspects of Cork's appeal which Brennan is unhappy about, especially now that the DRA decision to reject Cork's representations taken at a lengthy meeting on Saturday night has now been published in full.

The DRA decision reports that Cork argued the decision of the Central Appeals Committee was "illegal on the basis that no reasonable committee could have arrived at such a decision," and Cork county secretary Frank Murphy also argued that the DRA should issue a definition of the offence "contributing to a melee".

It was Murphy who chaired the recent Rule Book Task Force that designed the new disciplinary process and in his foreword to the Disciplinary Handbook issued at Congress he described it as meeting the requirements of a disciplinary code that was "simple and workable," that achieved "fairness and efficiency" and was of "fundamental importance" to a modern national sporting organisation such as the GAA.

The alternative at this stage, therefore, would have to be more drastic, possibly the widely mooted option of the GAA employing either a full-time disciplinary officer or an independent tribunal, similar to the AFL, who could "cite" players.