GAA set to crackdown on feigning injury

GAA chiefs are considering introducing penalties for "divers" who feign injury to gain advantage over opponents.

The Association is increasingly concerned with the culture of getting players booked by feigning injury, though there is still nothing in the GAA rules to punish such behaviour.

Now the Association's Strategic Review Committee has tabled a motion to the Special Congress next month seeking the introduction of new legislation to hand out penalties.

The SRC want this type of conduct to be included in the statute book under the heading of "aggressive fouls".

The SRC has submitted 52 motions to the October Congress, with a number relating to playing rules.

Headed up by former President Peter Quinn, the SRC want the revision of playing rules tabled every three years from now on even though a Tyrone motion at last year's Congress calling for playing rules to be discussed every ten years was passed.

In a controversial proposal, the SRC will also recommend that for the Allianz NFL next year and the year after, the number of players per team be reduced from 15 to 13. This experiment was introduced in Colleges games back in the 1970s but was discontinued after three years.

Another motion relating to players under the age of 16 is certain to evoke much debate at club level.

It opens up the possibility of a player switching to clubs outside his own parish via the following regulations:

that the club is in the area of the school attended by the player.

The club with whom the player first played of the club with whom either of his parents first played.

If this motion were to be sanctioned it would mean, for instance, a student player attending St Colman's College in Fermoy, but residing in Charleville or Mallow, would be eligible to play for the Fermoy club.

Another example is a player residing in Ahane or Patrickswell in Limerick would be free to play with any other club in the city or county if his parents had previously played with that club.

Meanwhile, the GAA are mystified as to how they recorded an attendance of just over 76,000 at Sunday's All Ireland Hurling Final, when another 3,500 tickets had been sold, making the match a sell out.

The organisation has confirmed all 79,500 tickets were sold for last Sunday's Hurling final. "Admission to the stadium was by ticket only and there were no returns, in a scenario where the demand far outstripped the supply.

"De facto there had to be close to 79,500 people in the ground, allowing for exigencies affecting a small number of individuals."

GAA officials added yesterday that the only explanation for the discrepancy is the possible malfunction or inaccuracy of elements of the new electronic stile system recently installed, even though this had been working perfectly since Croke Park reopened earlier in the year.

"The system will be fully examined and any adjustments required will be made in time for the Bank of Ireland Football Final," the GAA said.