Daly rounds on cynical use of deliberate fouls

GAA head of games development Pat Daly has expressed his concern at teams openly admitting they cynically foul to gain an advantage.

Giving his support in principle to the “toe tap and play on” rule that could be introduced in 2013 and any measures that ensure “it doesn’t pay to foul”, Daly did not mention any counties in particular.

However, he said: “What most people are objecting to and are offended by was there was some approach to cynical fouling. People wouldn’t be happy with that.

“It’s not for me to comment on individual teams; that’s not my job. My job is to look at the game in its totality and try and do what’s best for the game.”

Daly revealed he will be meeting with Gaelic Players’ Association chief executive Dessie Farrell next Wednesday to discuss his “toe tap and play on” rule, which has been postponed pending trials.

“We’ll be sitting down to try and work out the mechanics of what we’re trialling, number one, identifying where we’re going to trial it, how we’re going to refine it and where it will take us.

“In the past we kind of rushed into changes and we found ourselves in situations with a lot of confusion so I think we’ve learned from that and we’re going to make sure we’ll progress this in a methodical basis.”

Daly said the playing rules committee had looked at introducing a rule to put a curb on the number of consecutive hand-passes but felt it would over-burden referees.

Details released this week showed Donegal hand-passed 243 times compared to 36 kicked passes in their All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin.

“The feeling was it might just be one step too many for referees. It would very difficult if it was three or four like it is in International Rules. It might just be too demanding in terms of what they’re currently doing.

“I’m sure it’s an issue that will continue to be debated. The statistics are there now and if a trend continues to develop I’m sure the committee will say ‘we have to do something about this’.

Meanwhile, Daly has not ruled the possibility of Hawk-Eye’s pilot two-year period in Croke Park being cost neutral.

The company’s representatives will meet with GAA officials in Dublin on January 25 to discuss the agreement which will see their system being used for all championship matches at the venue in 2012 and 2013.

“People have suggested it could be done on a cost-neutral basis but, look, time will tell when people like [stadium and commercial director] Peter McKenna go to the market place and see what kind of interest is in it.

“It’s happening regardless. The commitment is there for the two-year trial and if it could be done on a cost-neutral basis then it would be even better again.”

Meanwhile, new Fermanagh manager Peter Canavan has included five of the 11 players who quit the panel under John O’Neill earlier this year in his 26-man McKenna Cup squad.

Niall Bogue, Mark Little, Liam Lynch, Shane Lyons and Seamus Quigley have been selected while James Sherry, another of those who walked off the panel, has been named in the extended panel.