Leinster council boss calls for appeals reform

THE chairman of the Leinster Council has called for sweeping changes to the GAA’s disciplinary procedures to prevent a repeat of the Offaly-Kildare blood substitution controversy.

Offaly and Wexford were due to play their Leinster SFC semi-final last Sunday week but that fixture was postponed until the weekend due to the time Kildare’s appeal took to be processed through the various channels.

Having decided to challenge the legitimacy of their quarter-final defeat to Kevin Kilmurray’s side, Kildare appealed the result to the Leinster GAC, the Central Appeals Committee and the Disputes Resolution Authority.

Leinster chairman Liam O’Neill believes the appeal process must be reassessed.

“The setting up of the DRA has unwittingly led to an extra layer of appeals in our system and this will inevitably cause delays if people continue to contest decisions to the limit,” said the Laois native.

“In my opinion, three opportunities to contest a result is at least one opportunity too many. We need to find a way to cut out at least one layer of appeal.

“Our Central Appeals Committee should have more legal experts amongst its members in order to cut down on the need to resort to the DRA for routine rule interpretations.

“The DRA could then be kept to deal with disputes, which is why it was set up in the first place.”

Since it’s inception last year, the DRA has had a hefty workload.

The culture in the GAA is increasingly one where individuals and units will do all within their powers to challenge disciplinary punishments handed down. O’Neill doesn’t criticise the Kildare county board for their actions, but he is evidently frustrated.

“The fact that there are avenues of appeal available does not make their use mandatory,” he pointed out. “Because the county officers were mandated to pursue this as far as they could, Kildare ended up losing four times.

“Firstly they were beaten on the pitch. They lost again when our Leinster Games Administration Committee ruled that Offaly had broken no rule. Their appeal to the Central Appeals Committee failed also and finally they lost the DRA case.”

The uncertainty cannot have helped the preparations of Kildare, Offaly or Wexford over the last few weeks and O’Neill believes that the GAA needs to address such controversies with much greater haste in future.

“Our rules should allow for the appeal system to be speeded up in cases where championship games are involved. Time limits need to be shortened and hearings need to be convened quicker.

“With emergency provisions in our rules to cover appeals involving championship games, and with a bit of forward planning, the three hearings which took 12 days to complete could all take place on the same day in swift succession.”

With the DRA finally having ruled against Kildare earlier this month, the county’s officials have indicated that they will be putting together a motion for Congress to close off the temporary substitution loophole for good.

O’Neill is also hopeful that GAA officials at provincial and national level will now act on the confusion of the early summer so that a similar situation will not blow up in their faces again.

“We need to learn from our bad experiences and do what it takes to ensure that we don’t repeat mistakes. The last few weeks have been a strain on all concerned and it’s with relief that we face back to playing the games we all love and enjoy.”