The GAA goes in hard on a corrupting alien code - boxing

THE Dublin Offaly under 21 match which drew the wrath of the GAA's Leinster Council may or may not have been the worst outbreak of disorder seen on a football pitch but it was certainly badly timed.

Played at Parnell Park, Dublin, on March 15th, the match and its scabrous conclusion percolated through the media over the following days just as Liam Mulvihill, GAA director general, was releasing his annual report. Mulvihill's reports are influential, state of the nation addresses and on the first page of this year's, football was identified as a problem for the association: the controversies with regard to incidents in several football games overshadowed another marvellous year for hurling.

The incidents in football were not confined to higher levels, indeed there were several serious cases at all levels but the matter was highlighted by the two All Ireland final games which were spoiled by scenes of indiscipline who we must banish from our games.

Mulvihill went on to address aspects of the problem.

With concern being vividly expressed at the very top of the association, the Dublin and Offaly under 21s picked an inopportune time to stage a mini riot. In many ways, the match was a paradigm of problems that can beset football: a niggling match, indecisive refereeing, off the ball incidents, a manager on the pitch.

Although both counties are considering appeals and are likely to proceed with them, certainly in relation to the ban which excludes both from next year's under 21 championship, it is hard to see the GAA's Management Committee, the appeal body, acting to undermine the Leinster council's characteristically decisive, if severe, stand on the issue.

The argument will be raised that a cohort of blameless players will lose the opportunity to play at under 21 level next season.

This is to misunderstand the nature of disciplinary action in team sports where individual punishment always has collective implications. In this case the whole county is being punished because of gross in discipline.

It may have been an embarrassment to the GAA but to the public the incident was just the latest in a seemingly endless sequence of violent and disorderly scenes that crop up in football matches.

Since last September's All Ireland final replay, there have been high profile disturbances at a club match in Tyrone which included a fatality through a heart attack, a schools' final in Leinster to which the Garda was called, and then the Dublin Offaly match.

The disturbance is estimated to have lasted for between two and five minutes, depending on the recollection. The fight itself apparently only lasted 90 seconds, a video recording suggests, but the toing and froing afterwards delayed matters further.

Triggered by an altercation between Dublin's manager, Dave Billings and an Offaly player, John Ryan, the fracas occurred near the end of the match. Until then it had been a nondescript affair, niggling rather than violent. One player, Offaly's John Greene, had already been sent off for two bookable offences.

Observers were taken aback by the intensity of the outbreak, which involved substitutes and others not playing.

GAA members are frequently irritated by the scale of the media coverage allocated to such scenes and believe the association is unfairly picked on in this regard. There may be some validity in the complaint, but not a lot.

It was contended the All Ireland League rugby match between St Mary's and Cork Constitution, which featured a free for all, was accorded a lot less publicity than the Mayo Meath All Ireland final.

But this ignores the considerable difference in scale between a run of the mill AIL match and the high point of the football season, viewed by millions across the world. When a comparable incident occurs in an international. It makes front page news - as Peter Clohessy could confirm.

It also ignores the fact that because the game has become so much faster, rugby free for alls are a comparative rarity.

PROFESSIONALISM has also made more urgent the need for discipline - the players' livelihoods are affected by suspension. So if the theory of exaggerated or biased coverage is groundless, what is the substance of the problem?

Mulvihill's report identifies a few areas: playing rules, disciplinary rules, match officiating, disciplinary structures, coaching and the attitude of team managers. There's no need to examine these headings exhaustively to find matters requiring serious attention.

There is some debate about the role of the playing rules but the fact that hurling, a similar game in many respects, has nothing like as many of football's disciplinary problems indicates that the playing rules - most obviously the elusive nature of the tackle - are a factor.

The game's nature makes control tricky. Unlike hurling, football is far more of a possession game than a transfer game. Preventing an opponent from getting the ball is a pressing imperative.

One on one field formations create 14 (goalkeepers excluded) miniature battles within the overall context of a match and these are frequently intense physical confrontations.

Enforcing the ambiguous rules of football is undermining referees authority. The best match officials frequently subordinate the letter of the law in favour of common sense - which is fine until a referee without such improvisatory powers has to resort to the rule book.

Mulvihill suggests using two referees for championship matches and abolishing linesmen.

Administering discipline has also fallen into disrepute.

Players can persistently offend and suffer no consequences. It's possible to be booked by the referee in every match you play and still receive no suspension.

For all the GAA's traditional queasiness about adopting procedures that "smack of an alien code", the introduction of a disciplinary points system to penalise serial offenders is so widely supported it is remarkable it still hasn't landed in the rule book.

Of particular relevance to the Dublin Offaly match is the attitude of team managers. Coaches and team officials bear a substantial responsibility for the behaviour of their teams. It's nearly 10 years since Paddy Collins, now retired and then the country's outstanding football referee, said referees had become part of many managers' gameplans.

Aside from what they will encourage or at least tolerate, managers behaviour on the sideline is frequently inflammatory.

Stalking the margins, conversing with players and, as in the case of Billings, taking to the pitch and occasionally getting involved with opposing players, their conduct requires strict regulation - ideally, confinement to the dugout.

Among the proposals generated by concern for football is the establishment of a committee to investigate the game. Based on the successful Hurling Development Committee, the suggested body would devise solutions to all these problems.

Amid the sinecures and time serving that can characterise Croke Park's maze of committees, it wouldn't be one for the fainthearted.