Kelly bins Cody's advice

Gaelic Games News: GAA president Seán Kelly has ruled out convening the Central Council to reconsider the experimental disciplinary rules in hurling. He was responding to comments made by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody at the weekend when he called on the rules to be dropped immediately, writes Seán Moran, GAA Correspondent

"I know Central Council reconvened for the football rules," he said after his team's defeat of Waterford, which saw two Kilkenny players, James Ryall and JJ Delaney, benched for receiving yellow cards, "so I say they should reconvene tomorrow night and canvass the county boards and see who wants this and who doesn't. And let it be blown away and let us get back to real hurling."

Asked for his views on this Kelly said: "That's not on. Central Council didn't reconvene for the football. It had decided to discuss any changes at its previous meeting. What happened was that I appointed two task forces and gave them their heads to decide on the experiment in the best interests of the game.

"The task forces were made up of top managers, top players and officials. It wasn't top-heavy with officials and it was the first time that there had been such a broad representation. It was decided that it would review the operation of the rules after the provincial competitions. That's what happened."

That review proved contentious. The original experiments saw a sin bin in operation for anyone receiving a yellow card and they were given a trial during the secondary provincial competitions in January. The most high profile of these is Leinster's O'Byrne Cup for football counties.

The uproar from managers that greeted the introduction of the sin bin prompted a hasty retreat by the football task force, and during the All Stars tour of Hong Kong it was announced that the sin bin would be dropped and a proposal put to the Central Council review meeting that players getting a yellow card should be dismissed for the remainder of the match, but could be replaced by a substitute.

That amendment was accepted by Central Council at the end of January, but the change of tack caused misgivings within the hurling community, many of whom felt that the rules were being altered exclusively to suit football, as the main pre-season hurling competition, the Walsh Cup, hadn't got fully into swing by that stage.

"Hurling suffered in that there were no high-profile matches," according to Kelly, "but you couldn't have two sets of rules for the games. As Nicky Brennan (chair of the hurling task force) said, the point of these rules is to protect skilful players. If there's no disciplinary problems in hurling then yellow cards won't be required.

"You can see in the club championships, where the experimental rules aren't in force, that there is more fouling. I think it's great that there is dispute about this because I have an open mind on the changes and I'd hope that everyone else would as well.

"People are giving the impression that a group got together, came up with these rules and said 'let's get this through'. That's not the case. We have a structure where we can look at suggestions and judge them over a number of weeks."

Brennan restated the rationale behind the experiment. "It was to try and allow better players not be subject to pulling and dragging. Instances of that had increased and the idea was to counter it. It was never meant that we would eliminate the physical nature of the game. Hurling will always remain a physical sport.

"But we have to allow players to express themselves. Also, we are trying to attract people into hurling, young lads who mightn't be from a hurling tradition, and their families will be influenced by how we handle discipline. Traditional hurling families don't worry as much."

Ironically, despite all the fuss that originated among football managers, the NFL has had a quiet introduction even though the Ulster counties hadn't had any experience of the experimental rules, as the Ulster Council declined to operate them during the McKenna Cup.

"I was half expecting all hell to break loose," says Kelly, "but since the National Football League started there's been 32 counties playing and very little about it."

And he emphasises that there will be no standing down the experimental rules in hurling. "There was no special Central Council meeting called and to go along to them again would be utter folly. No one can complain about penalising cynical fouls."