Liam O'Neill

[Catch and Kick]

Fairly pathetic on the part of the President; Harte was entitled to comment on the incident and I don't think Harte was in any way over the top or personal in his comments. Unlike the President. I'd heed Mickey Harte anytime before O Neill.
Black card for Liam O Neill on this.
No surprise though; he is very defensive and his legacy will be the Sky deal.

The recent trend in presidential candidates to run campaigns on issues has really turned the office into a bit if a farce. All the candidates have to find a platform and campaign on their issues; it's seldom about their track record. The role of President has changed from figurehead to that of a politician. Someone once said GAA officials were failed politicians. They had a point.
It's a role that needs to be seriously looked at; this lark of paying his salary during his term is an extravagance we can do without.

[Zulu]

While O'Neill is wrong here and he has been quite negative himself at times it is nonsense to say the head of the GAA should be a figure head who shuts up and waves politely at functions like the queen of england. And the idea that we don't pay the head of a multi-million pound organisation so he/she can give it full attention is daft - "sorry lads I can't make that meeting, I'm on nights all this week in work"

[orangeman]

Fairly pathetic on the part of the President; Harte was entitled to comment on the incident and I don't think Harte was in any way over the top or personal in his comments. Unlike the President. I'd heed Mickey Harte anytime before O Neill.
Black card for Liam O Neill on this.
No surprise though; he is very defensive and his legacy will be the Sky deal.

The recent trend in presidential candidates to run campaigns on issues has really turned the office into a bit if a farce. All the candidates have to find a platform and campaign on their issues; it's seldom about their track record. The role of President has changed from figurehead to that of a politician. Someone once said GAA officials were failed politicians. They had a point.
It's a role that needs to be seriously looked at; this lark of paying his salary during his term is an extravagance we can do without.

Some past presidents would have made great politicians IMO. Some not all of them.

[orangeman]

Fight back is on. Liam might regret opening his mouth.

"I can't be responsible for how Liam sees life," declared Harte. "I just look through my own lens and that's not the way I look at it. But if that's the way he chooses to describe it, that's up to him. Perhaps a view in the mirror might sort that out.

"The consistent application of all the rules is always an issue because there are so many variables within games. That is the key thing that needs to be attended to in refereeing, regardless of what set of rules you play by. If they're played by consistently, we can live with that. And we've always said that.

The Tyrone manager added: "It's not about taking a swing at referees or anything else. But you must be able to comment on things that you see in front of your face.

"And if something is clearly adjudicated differently than it ought to be, surely we have the right to comment on that?"

Harte, who was attending an event to mark the sponsorship of Kilcullen GAA by Nolan Butchers, continued: "Whenever you talk about consistency and you talk about refereeing decisions, if you comment on them, it seems to be that you're picking holes in it.

"That is not necessarily the case at all. If you put a logical argument with what you're thinking, I don't think that should be seen as being negative.

"Surely to God, referees and the refereeing fraternity are big enough to accept when they make mistakes and accept as well that they have a lot of things to think about?

"Maybe reducing the number of things they have to think about and attend to would be a good idea rather than add to it.

"You can say all you want about it and be as negative as you want about it, but I've never brought it up in a negative atmosphere.

"I've brought it up as facts that I've seen before me and it's not just for me that I'm mentioning these things.

"I just want us to try and reach a place where there's as consistent an application of the rules as is humanly possible. And that's not looking for perfection. But we should expect an effort to move in that direction."

[drici]

[Hardy]

Fairly pathetic on the part of the President; Harte was entitled to comment on the incident and I don't think Harte was in any way over the top or personal in his comments. Unlike the President. I'd heed Mickey Harte anytime before O Neill.
Black card for Liam O Neill on this.
No surprise though; he is very defensive and his legacy will be the Sky deal.

The recent trend in presidential candidates to run campaigns on issues has really turned the office into a bit if a farce. All the candidates have to find a platform and campaign on their issues; it's seldom about their track record. The role of President has changed from figurehead to that of a politician. Someone once said GAA officials were failed politicians. They had a point.
It's a role that needs to be seriously looked at; this lark of paying his salary during his term is an extravagance we can do without.

Now that you mention it, wasn't Liam's big campaign issue and major priority the sorting out of the fixtures farce for club players that is the biggest problem in the GAA?

How did that go, then?

[orangeman]

Fairly pathetic on the part of the President; Harte was entitled to comment on the incident and I don't think Harte was in any way over the top or personal in his comments. Unlike the President. I'd heed Mickey Harte anytime before O Neill.
Black card for Liam O Neill on this.
No surprise though; he is very defensive and his legacy will be the Sky deal.

The recent trend in presidential candidates to run campaigns on issues has really turned the office into a bit if a farce. All the candidates have to find a platform and campaign on their issues; it's seldom about their track record. The role of President has changed from figurehead to that of a politician. Someone once said GAA officials were failed politicians. They had a point.
It's a role that needs to be seriously looked at; this lark of paying his salary during his term is an extravagance we can do without.

Now that you mention it, wasn't Liam's big campaign issue and major priority the sorting out of the fixtures farce for club players that is the biggest problem in the GAA?

How did that go, then?

Is that not the president elect's brief ?

[Fuzzman]

Mickey was totally justified in what he said about the lack of consistency on Sunday and sure didn't the Sunday game show clear evidence of this and they all said it was disappointing that on the first live game this is the talking point. Coldrick made a mess of it and I watched the game again and Maginn was lucky not to go even before the penalty incident.

He also mentioned the Dublin league game where the keeper pulled down a forward and again the rule was ignored. With all the technology in place now so allow the refs & umpires to communicate more you would imagine that if the ref does get it wrong that his colleagues would be onto him right away to point it out.
Can you imagine if that game had of been the Kerry v Dublin match last year with the new rules and the Galvin pulled down B.Brogan and the ref didn't give him a black card. There would be uproar would there not? Same rules, different teams.

[Hardy]

Fairly pathetic on the part of the President; Harte was entitled to comment on the incident and I don't think Harte was in any way over the top or personal in his comments. Unlike the President. I'd heed Mickey Harte anytime before O Neill.
Black card for Liam O Neill on this.
No surprise though; he is very defensive and his legacy will be the Sky deal.

The recent trend in presidential candidates to run campaigns on issues has really turned the office into a bit if a farce. All the candidates have to find a platform and campaign on their issues; it's seldom about their track record. The role of President has changed from figurehead to that of a politician. Someone once said GAA officials were failed politicians. They had a point.
It's a role that needs to be seriously looked at; this lark of paying his salary during his term is an extravagance we can do without.

Now that you mention it, wasn't Liam's big campaign issue and major priority the sorting out of the fixtures farce for club players that is the biggest problem in the GAA?

How did that go, then?

Is that not the president elect's brief ?

Ah, you're right. I hope I don't get a dressing down like Mickey for that. 

For the record, as far as I can find out, this was his platform:

During the campaign, O'Neill proposed making significant changes to the GAA's disciplinary procedures.
To speed up disciplinary processes, he suggested that a three-man board with substantial powers should meet every Monday to deal with issues arising from matches quickly.
He has also highlighted pitch invasions and the traditional post-match All-Ireland final speech by the winning captain as areas in need of reform.
He backed supporting the growth of hurling in weaker counties such as Antrim, Down, Westmeath, Carlow and Laois at the outset of his campaign in December.

Heady stuff.

[The Trap]

Why was Mickey in Kildare to celebrate the sponsorship of Nolan Butchers sponsorship of Kilcullen GAA Club??

[Dinny Breen]

Why was Mickey in Kildare to celebrate the sponsorship of Nolan Butchers sponsorship of Kilcullen GAA Club??

There use to be a Tyrone poster here who was a member of the rags? Wonder is it connected?

[magpie seanie]

I thought O'Neill's comments were an absolute disgrace. Why didn't he argue the issue rather than make a personal attack on Mickey Harte. It was digusting and reeked of an attmept to settle old scores. People who tell the emporer that he is in the nip, like Harte, tend to really annoy the powers that be. Good on him. 

[AQMP]

A clear case of not playing the ball there by Liam O'Neill.  Down with this sort of thing.

[brokencrossbar1]

O'Neill has always come across as an arrogant, ignorant sort of man and this is another example of it.   I have no great grá for Harte but he had every right to highlight the issue of consistency.  The constant tinkering of the football rules is nonsense and should stop  now.  The rules that are there now should be left with no further admendment for the next 4-5 years.  The constant calls for change are not necessary, the requirement for people to know the rules,  refs, players and management,  and implement the rules consistently is required.

[AZOffaly]

I thought O'Neill's comments were an absolute disgrace. Why didn't he argue the issue rather than make a personal attack on Mickey Harte. It was digusting and reeked of an attmept to settle old scores. People who tell the emporer that he is in the nip, like Harte, tend to really annoy the powers that be. Good on him.

I agree with this. I'm getting a bit worried I seem to be siding with Mickey Harte a lot these days, but in this case O'Neill should have been able to either come up with a more diplomatic response, or else argue his case. A simple response along the lines of 'we believe the black card is very beneficial, and we expect to see the benefits throughout the year, however nobody is perfect and individual decisions will not be agreed by everyone, and of course managers will not be happy if they feel a decision has gone against them, but that's something that's been part of the game, and indeed most field games, since their inception' would have done the trick.