O’Neill: Football is ‘wonderful’

GAA president Liam O’Neill has strongly defended his commitment to Gaelic football and admitted his shock at the reaction to his misinterpreted Congress comments.

Announcing Offaly’s 1982 All-Ireland winning manager, Eugene McGee, as chairman of his Football Review Group, the Laois man expressed disappointment at how his “boring” remark about the overuse of the hand-pass and defensive tactics was translated as a slight against the game.

“I’m on record before as saying Gaelic football is a great game,” said O’Neill.

“It’s a very skilful game and it’s a game that needs to be nurtured.

“Despite the fact that a different interpretation was put on what I said a fortnight ago, my attitude to football has always been positive.

“My only comment on football was that when it’s (hand) passed around, when it’s defensive, that’s boring.

“You can judge for yourselves firstly whether they were reported accurately or not. Some people have said I said it in my speech.

“My speech is on the web and I certainly did not. I responded to a question and said that one aspect of Gaelic football was boring.

“Hasn’t it been amazing how that story has been treated since? It’s been an eye-opener for me. But it still won’t deter me, we still have planned this committee before Congress and we intend on carrying it through and I intend on making my contribution to making a wonderful game even better.”

Although the rest of the group has yet to be formalised, the Longfordnative will be given a brief independent of Croke Park, with no set guideline. With a modified version of the sin bin also likely to make its way back onto the Congress floor, the likes of Tyrone manager Mickey Harte are concerned Gaelic football is being interfered with.

O’Neill is adamant that is not the case and believes there is plenty of merit in reviving the 2009 disciplinary experimental rules, which narrowly missed out on being introduced.

“There’s an amazing perception out there. We didn’t tamper with Gaelic football, we tried to change discipline to improve the games.

“My attitude to football is positive and always has been. In that campaign, we said we were putting the emphasis on the skilful player and protecting the skilful player. We’reallowing the skilful player to play and punishing the person who perpetrated fouls. We wanted to speed the game up and make it more attractive. There was positivity the whole way. How anybody could misinterpret our intentions, I just don’t know.”

With independent thinkers such as McGee and national refereescommittee chairman Pat McEnaney, O’Neill fully expects Croke Park will receive demanding recommendations.

“Wouldn’t that be great?” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great to get some challenging stuff back with some great ideas?

“That’ll challenge us, then; are we serious about taking these ideas on board or not? I can guarantee ademocratic process.”

He added: “I would like at the end of my three years that people said ‘Liam made mistakes but he made mistakes by trying new things rather than being too afraid to try new things’.

“We will make a lot of mistakes, I have no doubt about that, and people will come forward with ideas and they just mightn’t be accepted.

“That’s been my lot quite a bit coming up in this organisation.Everyone has to accept that. You take that on the chin.”

Former Munster secretary Simon Moroney heads up the new Central Competitions Control Committee while Cavan’s Garrett O’Reilly, aformer member of the Central Disciplinary Committee will chair the Central Hearings Committee (CHC), with previous CHC chairman Liam Keane switching to the Central Appeals Committee.

Cavan’s David Mackey and Leitrim man Dermot Gallagher are the president and director general appointments to the GAA’s Management Committee.

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN 2012-2015: CCCC: Simon Moroney; CHC: Garrett O’Reilly; CAC: Liam Keane; DRA: Matt Shaw; Football Review: Eugene McGee; Hurling Development: Tommy Lanigan; Games Development: Michael Martin; National Referees: Pat McEnaney; Central Referees Appointments: Seamus Woods; Research: Pádraig Ó Céide; Medical, Scientific and Welfare: Ger Ryan; National Fixtures Planning: Paul Kinsella Rules Advisory: Frank Murphy.