Hooter to be fine-tuned for Fitzgibbon

A number of small changes will be made to the public clock/hooter for tomorrow’s Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals in Belfast.

The system, which will come into operation for this year’s All-Ireland senior football and hurling championships, was trialled for the first time in last weekend’s Sigerson Cup semi-finals and finals in Queens University.

While there were “no major red flag issues,” according to the GAA’s director of operations and player welfare Feargal McGill, he admitted there will be “slight changes to our protocol” for the UCC-CIT and LIT-WIT semi-finals.

UCC’s victorious Sigerson Cup winning manager Billy Morgan said he didn’t hear the hooter, which signalled the end of full-time on The Arena Pitch last Saturday evening.

That shouldn’t be an issue this weekend as all three Fitzgibbon Cup games are set to be played on The Academy pitch, where there were no similar problems encountered during last weekend’s Sigerson Cup semi-finals.

While McGill didn’t go into details of the alterations, UUJ manager Adrian McGuckin claimed referee Joe McQuillan failed to stop the clock once in the second half of last Saturday’s final.

“We’ve only had three games with it but with another three under the belt this weekend we will have a better picture of how the public clock should operate,” he said.

“Last weekend and this weekend is about learning more about the process, identifying any issues and certainly there will be small changes to the final recommended protocol for this year’s Championships.”

The clock counts up from 0.00 and is operated by a timekeeper who only stops the clock at the behest of the referee. Only relevant onfield injuries or other incidental delays, not necessarily substitutions, issuing of cards or consultation between match officials, warrant stoppages. However, the referee can call a halt to the clock for deliberate or abnormally significant time delays.

McGill confirmed the 2014 International Rules Series set for Australia has yet to be finalised. However, he said: “We’re in ongoing discussions with the AFL and we’ll make an announcement when we are ready.”

Meanwhile, there will be a re-draw of the Nicky Rackard Cup after Congress’ vote last weekend to allow Fingal into the competition.

Over 96% of delegates voted in favour of the Dublin region rejoining the third tier inter-county championship.