Thugs need to be turned in by clubs, says Cooney

GAA president Christy Cooney is confident clubs will identify their members involved in the recent unsavoury scenes in Roscommon and Tyrone.

For the second successive weekend, club matches were marred with violent scenes as Sunday’s Connacht final referee Liam Devenney had to be shielded from Corofin supporters in Kiltoom while one of his umpires was struck.

Cooney is optimistic the troublemakers will be singled out by their clubs.

He said: “There is a responsibility of the clubs to be part of the solution to the problem and if they’re asked for information to be up front and identify the culprits if that is required.”

Asked whether the GAA can do more to protect the safety of referees following games, Cooney responded: “There shouldn’t be a need to protect referees after games. It’s about showing a bit of respect and that’s the bottom line.”

Cooney said he has no issue with Connacht’s tradition of staging club finals on a home and away basis providing “there is proper stewarding and proper management of the venue. From what I understand it didn’t seem to be in place last Sunday for people to be able to get onto the pitch like that”.

Meanwhile, Cooney warned Dublin have more pressing matters than provincial status and have a long way to go before achieving it. As part of their Blue Wave strategic plan, Dublin aim to attain provincial status in terms of funding and affording the county chairman a permanent place on the GAA’s management committee by next year.

However, Cooney said: “I’d like to hear from Dublin on why they expect provincial status, what does that mean to Dublin and how is it going to affect the other [counties] in Leinster. I wouldn’t put a judgement on it at this stage, I think we have to listen to the arguments Dublin make on it. We have a responsibility on the association to support Dublin, which we are doing. It’s our capital city with a population of one and a half million, but that doesn’t mean that everything in their plan is deliverable or is the right thing to do.”

Cooney also stressed no decisions on the recommended stadium capacity reductions in the audit commissioned by the National Infrastructure and Safety Committee will be made until February. The management committee are considering the proposals made by health and safety officer Michael Slattery.

“Some [stadiums] are a bit more challenging than others and we have to have health and safety standards current in all our venues. I welcome the report and they’ve gone away to do some more work and let’s see what the final outcome is and we’ll do what needs to be done.

“That’s the important thing, that we put in place good health and safety measures not only for our supporters but our players.”

On the matter of a return of the Railway Cup next February, Cooney said attendances will have to be into four figures for the competitions to survive.

“We’d certainly want a couple of thousand. The days of two or three hundred people going to a final and what it costs to prepare teams and get teams there. You don’t mind if financially you lose a few bob if you get decent crowds at the games and people come to enjoy it and it’s a spectacle and we have our top inter-county players playing.”