Cooney indicates experimental rules will remain on hold

GAA PRESIDENT Christy Cooney has all but confirmed there will be no attempt to resurrect the controversial experimental disciplinary rules in 2010.

The association announced last December that a raft of temporary rulings would be used in the 2009 national leagues with a view to confronting the growing cynicism and persistent fouling in the games.

Chief among them was the announcement that any player receiving a yellow card would be sent to the line for the duration of the game and be replaced by a substitute.

The new regulations needed a two-thirds majority at last April’s Annual Congress to be implemented on a permanent basis but the advocates of change fell short, despite securing an overall majority, 177 votes to 100.

An eight-vote swing would have secured the motion but the divisive nature of the rules was evident by the fact more than 80% of the GPA’s membership came out against them in an earlier poll.

There was always a perception that hurling was being punished for Gaelic football’s sins despite the insistence of senior GAA figures that the small ball code was in equal need of the new boundaries.

The GAA made a point of holding its counsel on the future of the rules until after the conclusion of the championship and Cooney signalled yesterday he would be “bringing something” to Saturday’s Ard Comhairle meeting. “I think this year went very well,” he said yesterday. “We had no major instances of note – we had one game where things were fairly tough – but outside that, the standard of sportsmanship was excellent.

“So, maybe that might give ye a clue as to how things are going to go.”

Saturday’s meeting will be held at Citywest, as opposed to Croke Park, due to Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Italy that day, and the Saggart venue will also hold this year’s Special Congress on the same day.

The Congress’s task is a simple, but vital one: to tidy up the mess caused by the promotion/relegation fiasco in this year’s Liam MacCarthy Cup and take the first step in preventing a repeat.

The expectation is that the gathering will be a formality.

“I would hope so,” Cooney agreed. “I would expect that to be the situation. This is really about tidying up the situation to ensure we can go ahead with our draws and bring Carlow into the Leinster (hurling) championship. Hopefully this will go through and then we can have a serious consultation process with the other counties.

“This is a crucial decision for the hurling championship as to whether we are going to have promotion and relegation or not in the future. That is why we are having this motion, to tide this over for a short period and have a proper motion at Congress next year. Let’s get the hurling championship structured properly once and for all so we don’t have the farcical situation we had this year.”