Cork want player sent off for 10 minutes after yellow card

RULE 42 is not the sole issue for discussion at Croke Park this weekend. Unusually, motions on playing rules for the GAA congress are almost as noteworthy for omissions as for the variety of proposals.

Not surprisingly, there is no recommendation to retain the most controversial of all the experiments tried out in the National League - that which merited dismissal of a player after a single yellow card and allowing him to be replaced.

It will be recalled that this was the amended proposal which came from the Football Task Force under the chairmanship of Connacht chairman Tommy Moran. That arose following difficulties with the implementation of the sin-bin. Interestingly, however, Cork have submitted a motion calling for the adoption of a sin-bin, which would see a player sent off for a 10-minute period after a single yellow card.

The GAA yesterday confirmed details of the total numbers of goals and points scored and the numbers of red and yellow cards issued in the group stages of the Allianz NFL and the first series of the Allianz NHL

The figures show that under the experimental rules in football, the number of yellow cards issued fell by almost 52%. 302 yellow cards were issued in this year’s league as opposed to 628 last year, while the number of red cards issued fell from 45 in 2004 to 9 in 2005.

The total number of scores in the league showed an increase from 2,491 in 2004 to 2769 this year. In the 2005 league a total of 200 goals and 2569 points were scored. In 2004 the corresponding figures were 229 goals and 2262 points.

In the first series of the Allianz NHL, the total number of yellow cards issued fell by 37% from 279 to 175. The number of red cards also fell, from 19 to 9 while the total number of scores grew from 1933 to 2204. In 2004 there were 204 goals and 1,729 points recorded in the first series of the league (five rounds of games) while in 2005 there were 252 goals and 1952 points scored in the same period.

Apart from the motions on Rule 42, which will clearly dominate the Saturday afternoon session, the various playing rule proposals will probably create most interest. At the tail-end of congress, delegates will debate a division of the responsibilities of the Games Administration Committee - into fixtures and discipline - and the introduction of an arbitration process designed at discouraging members from going to the courts to seek redress. While no club or county committee was encouraged to propose the adoption of the experimental rule in hurling which rewarded the scoring of line balls with two points, motions have been submitted calling for the retention of the pick-up in football and the use of plastic tees for kick-outs (either mandatory or optional).

A wide-ranging motion from the Connacht Council, supported by the Hurling and Football Task Forces) seeks to incorporate into rule a number of disciplinary measures which have been the subject of on-going experimentation.

They propose that acts of “irresponsible behaviour” be penalised with a red card.