GAA disciplinary measures ‘need major overhaul’

THE GAA urgently needs to abolish its current system of suspending players for a period of time rather than for specific matches, according to leading Association official Pat Daly.

Daly, the Head of Games in Croke Park, was heavily involved in discussions with the AFL's disciplinary chief Brian Collis QC two years ago in Australia, talks which planted the seeds for the establishment of a totally new structure here with new committees like the CDC, CAC and the DRA.

While that move has improved matters, Daly feels the entire GAA disciplinary system is still being undermined by the slavish loyalty to the traditional method of banning players for a time period.

"Ultimately, this time-based suspension system will just have to be looked at. We're going to have to look at a system of match-based suspensions. As it is, you can be suspended for one month and miss three championship matches or else be suspended for three months and miss none.

"We wouldn't have all these 'Rory O'Connell cases (players seeking court injunctions) if we had a system where a guy was suspended for one or two matches instead of a period of time.

"Had that been the case, it would have been the end of all these court injunctions anyway but, as it is, there is a real sense of injustice out there that players are getting similar suspensions for very different offences."

Because of that last point, Daly insisted, the GAA rulebook must be allowed take intent into account whenever a player's punishment is being meted out. That is a road the Rules Review Committee has been anxious to avoid, but Daly insists it would not open up a new can of worms.

"There's a lot of resistance to going down that road because people are saying you can't quantify intent, but it's not rocket science to differentiate between the guy who makes the awkward clumsy tackle and the guy thundering in to the back of a guy off the ball.

"In rugby only a few weekends ago there was a case where a player flew into a guy off the ball and they were able to differentiate as to whether it was meant or accidental. We need something comparable in the GAA."

Daly will again travel to Australia with the GAA touring party this month where another round of discussions is due to take place with their AFL counterparts.

Sean Kelly has already indicated that he will be soliciting opinions on the new disciplinary structures here and Daly feels that the Irish visitors could do worse than look at Aussie Rules' own disciplinary system while they are there.

"With the Australian system it's worked on points. You pick up points for various types of indiscretions. If a guy accepts his punishment, his sentence is reduced by 10%.

"For instance, I have an example of the AFL system on the screen in front of me here that shows a guy whose points add up to a 4.7 game suspension.

Obviously you can't be banned for 4.7 games but if he accepts his punishment he would only be banned for three games. If he doesn't and he loses the appeal he gets four."

Daly has long been one of the more lateral thinking members in an organisation which has sometimes proven painfully slow to embrace change and new ideas.

Earlier this year, he called for a radical overhaul of the NFL and the football championship which would see the race for Sam Maguire limited to just 20 counties.

Now he is calling for hurling and football to be divorced completely for disciplinary purposes, arguing that the two are radically different games and should not be treated as a single entity in that regard.

He has also lamented what he sees as the lost opportunity that was the experimental rules in the NFL and NHL. Though derided in many quarters, there was a sense among others that, given time, some changes could have made a welcome difference.

Daly claims that, despite their short life span, the rules did leave a lasting impression the statistics showing that this year's leagues delivered more scores and more playing time.

There is still a case, he insisted, for allowing substitutes be introduced in the place of players sent off for certain misdemeanours. He argues that it would increase discipline and embolden referees to make tougher decisions.

"In the All-Ireland final there were at least three guys who should have been sent off but weren't because refs are afraid to send people off or punish them properly."