Duffy blasts club game critics
While acknowledging the association has a disciplinary problem, the GAA director general slammed the sensationalism attributed to theviolent scenes between Derrytresk and Dromid Pearses by a number of non-GAA columnists.
“One need only examine the excessive coverage of the incidents at the All-Ireland junior club semi-final in Portlaoise. These were disagreeable incidents, and no-one in authority in the GAA will seek to minimise what occurred. But the gap between what actually occurred and the presentation of what occurred was conspicuous. The incident became an unmissable opportunity in certain quarters to target the GAA and toindulge in the crudest forms of stereotyping of supporters of Gaelic games. That said, one should not dwell at length on the disparaging caricatures emanating from the minds of the envious, the very coarseness of which is surely a sign of how much the popularity of Gaelic games enrages them.”
Asked if he was excessively sensitive with his comments about the media, Duffy answered: “There were articles published in a paper that went way beyond acceptable levels of criticism. Several national newspapers published articles that were disgraceful. If you read those articles, you would say those (my) comments were justified.”
Duffy also took umbrage with how the stages of the GAA’s disciplinary process have been reported incorrectly. He believes the system is working “pretty well” and is “very fair to players” but acknowledged indiscipline remains an issue.
He wrote: “We might please ourselves by complaining about media coverage of scenes of indiscipline, but it is not the media that causes the incidents. It is up to all members of the association to address and solve the problem.”
Duffy believes the increase in negative play in Gaelic football has been added to by “mass defence” football.
He strongly encourages for a Congress reconsideration of the experimental disciplinary rules, which came into force for the 2009 leagues, before narrowly missing out on the necessary two-thirds majority that year in Cork.
“The rules were trialled extensively; the resultant statistics issued by the games department underlined theadvantages of the new rules: scoring levels were higher and the ball remained in play for longer periods.”
Part of the reasoning given for its failure to attain the required support was the rules were not relevant to hurling.
“Whatever about the truth of that claim, the reality facing us three years on is that the average foul count in football games is still far too high and the negative features the committee sought to eliminate remain in football, both of which are detracting from the game from the perspective of both players and spectators.
“Add to these negative features the mass-defence system now being employed by many teams, the emphasis on heavy tackling through two-handed pushes to the chest, and the swarming around the player in possession, and there is a real and imminent danger that football is developing into a less attractivespectacle, and also a game that is very difficult to referee.
“I welcome the decision of the standing committee on the playing rules to review the tackle. But I would go further; I believe thatfootball has yet to realise its full potential as a game in the way that hurling has. It is time for Congress to reconsider the 2009 proposals on the disciplinary playing rules.”
Stating some of the criticism received by referees last year was“personal, exaggerated and unfair, and fell far below the standards that should be acceptable in any sporting organisation”, Duffy also highlighted that if Hawk-Eye score detection technology — which comes into use for this year’s Championship — isrejected after its forthcoming two-year trial, match officials will have to be cut some slack.
“A lack of resources means that video technology cannot be available for all championship matches but such technology is in place for the 40 championship games that are televised ‘live’. The first decision to be made is whether we wish to make use oftechnology; if we decide to do so, we must accept the introduction of a stop-start dimension to games. If we chose not to use technology, we have to acknowledge referees will make mistakes and we must stop demonising them when mistakes are made.”
Meanwhile, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) have suggested counties whose players become embroiled in melees could be better punished by the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) from applying a penalty from a list, including a one-point reduction and being forced to play their games behind closed doors.
The independent committee gave the guidelines after their decision to overturn the CHC’s decision to strip Monaghan of home advantage andrefer the case back to them for reconsideration.
The penalties in order of ascending seriousness are: cautions; fines;matchday restrictions; home match behind closed doors; home match at neutral venue; annulment of the result of a match and an order to replay it at neutral venue and/or behind closed doors, and a combination of the aforementioned.
“One was struck by the absence of recognition of our players in prominent national end-of-year awards [in 2011]. The lesser attention that our games seem to receive has clearly nothing to do with popularity or innate attractiveness [RTÉ’s three most watched televised sports events were GAA games]. Might it be the lack of an international and professional dimension has created a form of condescension towards Gaelic games, or that there is a metropolitan attitude in Dublin-based media towards games with a strong — although not at all uniquely — rural following?”
“One might hope that some of our members who regularly comment on GAA affairs would give some consideration to the notion of loyalty to the GAA and to the damage that their routinely negative comments can cause to the Association.”
The hurling league format controversy
“Counties, committees and individuals all have their own views on how the league can best be organised, but channelling these through CCCC will prevent the unseemly public disagreement that we had in 2011.”
“While I would be disappointed to see the international games come to an end, the hard fact is that they will need to make a greater impact in 2013 and 2014 on the hearts and minds of the sporting public in both countries if they are to enjoy the long-term future we would wish them to have.”
“It is natural that counties that have currently large delegations will have reservations about a proposal that reduces their voting strength, but their acceptance of the principle of more equalrepresentation for all counties would facilitate a reduction in the number of delegates to a much more manageable number.”
“It seems to me that the biggest challenge facing Dublin is that of creating new clubs... if the creation of new clubs is the optimum solution. A second solution would be the establishment of satellite teams that feed into already-established clubs.”
“Third-level colleges should not have to defend their efforts to promote their games against those whose concern does not extend beyond the requirements of inter-county games.”
“No employee sets out to generate more work for volunteers. If club and county officers believe that the volunteer is being overloaded by such initiatives, then we need to decide on our main priorities and postpone the less important things.”
