O'Neill tries to counter high-profile criticism

RESPONDING TO highly damaging criticism of the experimental rules by All-Ireland winning managers Brian Cody and Mickey Harte earlier this week, the chairman of the disciplinary task force, Liam O’Neill, sought yesterday to diminish the relevance of such high-profile managerial remarks a week before Congress votes on the matter.

Harte did attend the football manager feedback meeting last month, but Cody was represented by Kilkenny selector Martin Fogarty at the hurling equivalent.

“Martin spoke at length and very passionately about players being wrestled to the ground in order to lure referees into sending both players off. We took the advice from Kilkenny on board and removed this sanction from the list. No other sanction was directly attacked, we changed the format on Kilkenny’s advice as it ran counter to our philosophy anyway.

“Cyril Farrell started this issue by stating the rules of hurling were fine as they are,” continued O’Neill. “This is a sideline issue, however, as we have not changed the rules. All we have done is reconditioned offences.

“We, as officials, are custodians of the game at the moment, not the managers. It is us who are charged with handing over our games to the next generation in a good state. That means making our games safe. We can’t allow managers to dictate policy.”

O’Neill was speaking after a week that has seen the chances of the experimental rules being adopted on a permanent basis recede significantly after a number of county boards rejected them. That said, both O’Neil and GAA head of games Pat Daly were adamant yesterday that a two-thirds majority can still be reached.

“I wouldn’t subscribe to the scare-mongering,” said Daly. “A number of counties are still to be visited (Galway and Waterford on Tuesday; Roscommon next Wednesday). I have heard a lot of positive feedback.

“All five counties last Tuesday night voted in favour – Cork, Down, Kildare, Longford and Wexford, while last night Westmeath voted against them, but they were passed in Leitrim.

“We have delivered on our mandate and now it is up to the democratic process.”

The referees committee chairman PJ McGrath backed them, along with the 2008 referees of the year Maurice Deegan and Barry Kelly, at their awards ceremony in Dublin on Wednesday.

However, the rejection by Harte and Cody, along with several other high-profile managers, has proved a heavy blow to the two-year venture undertaken by O’Neill’s committee.

The Cody criticism re-enforced the theory that hurling and football sanctions were conceived with more emphasis on stamping out indiscipline in the latter sport.

“It is a myth that the football and hurling sanctions are similar,” Daly continued. “There are two big myths. One, that this is an exercise in taking physicality out of our games and that’s totally wide of the mark because body colliding, neck-high tackles, pulling down and tripping have nothing to do with physicality.

“Secondly, we are not trying to force a football agenda on hurling. We have categorically proven, on the back of incidents back over the past two years, that there is a problem with fouling in hurling. Highly disruptive fouls are prevalent in hurling and what we are trying to do is practically deal with that problem before somebody gets seriously injured.

“I’ve heard many people ask why can’t we have the same type of respect for the referee as in rugby. You can’t have a scenario where there is a very high threshold of disruptive fouling and say we are dealing with discipline or we have a problem with respecting referees.

“There are three issues: the inconsistency of application, respect for referees and discipline. They are interlinked.”

The fight by those in Croke Park to pass the new disciplinary sanctions will not be conceded until tomorrow week’s vote in Cork, but O’Neill did admit the potential for defeat had been considered.

“We’re working at the moment on it being between half and a two-thirds majority. There will be last minute swings that we can’t gauge. Remember, changes to rule 21 and rule 42 didn’t make it through the first time.

“Some modification (to the sanctions) is going to happen anyway. We can’t allow neck tackles, pulling down, tripping and body collision to continue in our games. If not this time, eventually change will come.”