Cooney: Violence towards match officials not increasing

GAA president Christy Cooney has refuted suggestions that violence towards match officials is on the increase after a weekend that was blighted by a pair of unsavoury incidents in both the male and female codes.

Last Friday, referee Simon Brady and chairman of the Tyrone ladies football board Martin Conway were assaulted at the end of the county final while an umpire was attacked in a Tipperary divisional hurling game.

Cooney declined to comment on the Tyrone incident on the basis that it occurred during a game that was under the jurisdiction of a sister organisation but, on the subject of such incidents in general, he was very clear.