Time for GAA to clean up its act

IT NOW seems clear that the good men and true of the Games Administration Committee of the GAA who met last Monday night and early Tuesday morning in Croke Park to impose disciplinary sanctions on Meath and Mayo players are sorely in need of a course in self discipline themselves.

Within a few hours of the decision concerning the All Ireland final replay being made, some big mouth, probably from within the GAC, had been so impressed with his own importance that he had succumbed to the temptation to tell the entire details of the decision to the radio station 98 FM.

Now before anyone accuses me of sour grapes, let me say. that I admire whoever it was in 98 FM who winkled the facts out of the big mouth involved whether or not that mouth is a member of the GAC or not. After a career of some 40 years in journalism I have to admit that I admire the tenacity - the enthusiasm of the journalist who managed to open the big mouth.

Nor indeed do I necessarily have antagonism for the particular mouth nor its size. Quite honestly, the blame lies fairly and squarely on the GAA itself.

Having been accused in recent times of being soft on the GAA, I must now try to even up that unfair accusation. On this and many other administrative matters the GAA is completely inept and ham fisted.

Within an hour of the final whistle at Croke Park on that day of the replay the referee Pat McEnaney should have been told that his match report was to be on Liam Mulvihill's desk within 48 hours.

With that report before them the GAC should have met to discuss its contents by which time a minute by minute - blow by blow if you like - videotape of the crucial moments of madness should have been scrutinised by the members of the GAC both collectively and individually and players and their respective county boards should have been informed straight away.

Croke Park will tell you that it was in the interests of equity that players were to be allowed seven days notice of a call to Croke Park. Rubbish!

The point here is that the whole matter should have been dealt with as expeditiously as possible. The inordinate delay played into the hands of people with nothing better to do than phone up radio chat shows to get their five minutes of fame from Gaybo or Pat or Maid Marian to talk about an event which they hadn't attended and which they didn't understand while the members of the supreme disciplinary body of the GAA were twiddling their thumbs and praying for guidance and trying to work out an acceptable compromise.

Now we are told the GAA is considering an investigation into the matter of the premature broadcast of the GAC decision, presumably to find out how the "leak" took place and who can be called to book. What a waste of time.

Surely what the GAA should be doing is finding a better and more efficient way of doing its business. Let us not forget that the replay of the All Ireland final resulted in a £1 million, bonanza for the GAA.

That being the case it would, not have stretched the coffers of the GAA to any great extent to organise a meeting of the GAC in a Dublin hotel at a reasonable time of the day, early morning perhaps, hear the players and their advocates, adjourn the proceeding, consider the facts, make a decision, recall the players to be told the outcome and then call a press conference and have the whole thing cleared up by the evening.

The GAA should be ready to answer the ignorant ranting of people on the big radio programmes. People who ring ink should at least be confronted by programme presenters who know what they are talking about, who understand the structure of the GAA and the fact that it handles more than one game.

Those proposing that players sent off in a football competition should be suspended for a number of games in the same competition do not realise that this could mean that people banned in an intercounty football competition could continue to play in club competition or in any hurling competition. Likewise a player sent off in a National Football League final at the end of May could play in the championship the next week.

On the other hand, if a player like Liam McHale was barred from the next three Mayo championship matches Mayo would have to win their next three championship matches before he would be eligible to play again. In the event of Mayo losing their matches in a bad run, McHale would, probably, never be allowed to play for Mayo in the championship again.

Dozens of people have been allowed to use the airwaves of this country to comment on matters of this kind without any let or hindrance by presenters who don't understand these things.

The most important aspect of this is that the general public are being badly served by their national broadcasting service.