Woods defends stance on recent punishments

GAA disciplinary chief Seamus Woods has declared the Association will not turn a blind eye to on-field incidents that would constitute criminal offences off it.

The Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) chairman said the GAA would be abdicating its responsibility were it to ignore the recent spate of melees at club and county games under their jurisdiction.

Woods was defiant in defending the punishments the committee proposed for Cork, Armagh, Monaghan and Kildare arising from league games last month. Cork selector Ger O’Sullivan suggested high profile football teams are being discriminated against because their games are being televised whereas those in Division 3 and Division 4 games are not.

He was speaking in relation to the charge brought against the Rebels for their players’ involvement in a melee against Armagh, which has since seen them forced to concede home advantage to Laois on Saturday week.

Responding to O’Sullivan’s comments, Woods said: To me, this issue about the presence or otherwise of video evidence is designed to obscure the fundamental issue that this misdemeanour or infraction took place or not. That to me is what it’s about — distracting from the fundamental issue.

“There’s a fundamental distinction between right and wrong. If I were to say that we are to overlook or disregard infractions or offences just because there mightn’t be video coverage of less illustrious fixtures elsewhere... my answer to that is an emphatic ‘no’.

“Are we to reach a situation in the GAA where what constitutes a criminal offence on a public road would somehow be overlooked just because it happened within the confines of a pitch enclosure? I think that’s a perverse situation.

“If we were to take that type of view just because there is video evidence of it and there mightn’t be elsewhere it would be a serious abdication of responsibility by the Association.”

Woods highlights the advantages of video evidence to players and counties in defending themselves against possible punishment.

“It’s a two-way street. Players can use and have used video evidence to exonerate themselves when appropriate. But the other side of that equation is that the committee responsible is fully entitled to use video evidence when available to address misdemeanours and propose penalties accordingly.”

Woods is amazed counties aren’t investing more time in ensuring their players abide by the rules of the game.

Last week, Kerry chairman Patrick O’Sullivan revealed Jack O’Connor had spoken to senior members of his team about conduct towards the referee.

It’s that type of pro-active behaviour Woods would like to see more of, but he’s not convinced enough managers are doing it.

“Players all know the list of individual infractions and the categories one, two and three. Let’s be done with this distasteful spectacle of melees, 28 and 29 players involved in melees. It’s a very simple step that players can take. Let’s be rid of this and let them behave themselves.

“It’s a responsibility on the part of managers, selectors and mentors to ensure there is no ambiguity for players, be they briefed, warned or whatever verb, on the way they should behave themselves on the field.

“I’m always astounded that counties are prepared to invest up to €1 million in pursuit of an All-Ireland title.

“In so doing, they will employ all the experts from strength and conditioning to strategists to psychologists to expert analysts. All of that can be negated by personal acts of indiscipline.”

Meanwhile, Woods said there is no inconsistency in the fact the CCCC have been proposing monetary fines for counties only for the Central Hearing Committee (CHC) to hand down home advantage forfeitures for the same charges.

“We propose penalties. All we can do is propose. When we do that, the recipient is entitled to a hearing. When he goes to a hearing, the slate is wiped clean.

“The Central Hearings Committee do not know what we have proposed. The CCCC don’t publicise anything. If a proposed penalty comes into the public domain it’s always from the recipient. Never, never from the committee. Therefore, that [CHC] meeting takes place and in the recent cases they chose to penalise the recipients by having them play their games away from home. They had no idea that we have proposed a monetary penalty. We didn’t do that with any great relish. I don’t believe in fines, especially in the current climate.”

Woods points out there is nothing unusual in the CHC’s decisions to strip Cork and Monaghan of home advantage in their upcoming league ties. He believes it’s actually the counties themselves who are guilty of inconsistency in contesting charges they had readily applied in their own counties.

“Teams not being allowed to play at home — that is a common feature in the club domain of individual counties where clubs are taken to task. There’s nothing unique in what the Central Hearings Committee has done. That penalty has been used by individual counties the length and breadth of this island.

“I’ve seen in individual cases how the officers are holding forth and yet the same men have thrown the rulebook at people in their own counties. Yet when something happens to some illustrious member of the county team, up they go to Croke Park and the local news desks about it. It’s inconsistency.

“What they’re doing is playing to the local gallery.”