Majority of experimental football rules rejected

THE GAA’S experimental football rules were in tatters after the opening session of congress here.

After president Christy Cooney decided to start into the motions on playing rule changes – amendments to which are allowed only every five years – as proposed by Central Council and trialled during the National Leagues, delegates promptly shot down a number of the key provisions.

The unhappy task of advocating the changes fell to Séamus Woods, who had chaired the rules review group, but there was virtually no enthusiasm for the main recommendations.

First to go was the motion extending play before the full-time and half-time whistles until the ball goes dead. Cork secretary Frank Murphy opposed, arguing the proposal was in conflict with existing rules (when a referee tells a player he has time only to score direct from a free) and that players were unaware of how much time had elapsed.

Kerry and Galway argued against the mandatory use of the fist in hand-passing, and it too was well defeated.

Also rejected was the proposal to provide for a mark, expressed by a number of motions. Having attempted to see on a show of hands if there was the required two-thirds majority for the idea in principle, Cooney concluded there wasn’t and declared that all of the motions had fallen.

Similarly, the relaxation of the square-ball rule failed to find favour.

It wasn’t entirely one-way traffic however. The proposals to situate penalty kicks closer to goal and place kick-outs farther out, on the 13-metre line, were both accepted.

Today delegates will consider the proposed changes to the hurling rules, a prospect about which Central Council can hardly be optimistic in the light of what happened last night.

Earlier, congress unanimously endorsed as policy the halting of pitch invasions.

Cooney also revealed there have been contacts between the GAA and the Government in relation to possible legislation to outlaw pitch invasions.

“There have been some discussions but not that intensive, as we decided to try and educate rather than enforce,” said the president, who during the video had warned: “If we can’t persuade our members, I believe we will have to work with our Government to ban it. I would much prefer if we worked together as an association to deal with this.”

The vote took place after a stark video presentation, introduced by Con Hogan, the chair of a sub-committee convened to look into the problem. “I want you to consider a future,” said Hogan, “where the name of Croke Park or Thurles or Clones or some other GAA stadium is linked forever with Ibrox and Heysel and Hillsborough, not as an iconic sports venue but as a place where people died, and died because we did not exercise proper crowd control.

“I want you to consider the advice of everybody with expertise in sports event management: governments, international sports bodies, gardaí, health and safety authorities, fire officers, ambulance services, our own event controllers – all of whom tell us, some from bitter and tragic experience, that when we lose control in a crowd management situation we incur the risk, indeed the probability, of serious injury or death to patrons at our games.”