John Kiely: Ending maor foirne role 'a daft notion'
Limerick manager John Kiely has dismissed plans to end the role of the maor foirne as a “daft notion” after the black card.
After a series of flashpoints, the Central Council has endorsed a proposal from the playing rules committee to disband the running selector position. Should the motion be passed at Congress this weekend, it will apply for this year’s Championships.
Against Limerick on Sunday, Cork’s maor foirne Diarmuid O’Sullivan was dismissed after approaching referee Seán Cleere on the field. But it is for other reasons the GAA wants the role discontinued and Kiely entirely disagrees with the idea.
“Why is it being done? Why has the proposal gone forward for the maor foirne to be done away with?
"It’s because of another problem and the other problem is some people aren’t leaving the pitch in the designated fashion that is required. In other words, ‘get off the field and don’t be loitering around preventing a goalkeeper from kicking or pucking a ball into that space’.
“That’s why it’s happening. Let’s call a spade a spade. We see it every single weekend where certain individuals are staying on the pitch and/or exiting the pitch through a space.
In my opinion, in a circumstance such as that the fourth official should be given the power to yellow card the [team] official who does go in and stand [on the field]. And if he does it a second time it’s a red and he’s up in the stand and that’s the end of it.
“If that was done on a couple of occasions, the mentors who are persisting in this type of behaviour would quickly adjust their behaviour and exit the field in an appropriate fashion.”
Kiely, who yesterday jetted off with his panel to Portugal on a five-day training camp, can’t stress enough the importance of Limerick’s coach Paul Kinnerk as maor foirne in relaying messages during games.
“For me, why would you do away with a particular role which is an absolutely vital role in managing the team on the day of the games to help facilitate the best possible game we can?
Just because some people are flouting the law on it. Would you now just enforce the law?
“It’s like speeding and you take away the cars — we won’t have a problem with speeding. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. There is no need to be introducing some other daft notion.
“What you’re going to end up with then is people actually encroaching onto the pitch that shouldn’t be encroaching onto the pitch at all. We are creating another problem by dealing with it like this. I think it is very manageable if they just put their mind to it.”
