Rules Shambles

[samwin08]

This shambles must be stopped. If the GAA wish to change the rules , then begin at school level and phase in rules to Senior gradually over 5-10 years. Do not ask an old dog to learn new tricks.
The  final stages of the All Ireland Club competitions were played under infuence of 'experimental  rules' .eg. Hand pass and card system.  Port Laois could justifiablly take their  case to DRA / High Court. Most unfair and injustice to managers , players and supporters. It is time that Christy began listening  to the people rather than his (civil servants)officials .   

[Lar Naparka]

This shambles must be stopped. If the GAA wish to change the rules , then begin at school level and phase in rules to Senior gradually over 5-10 years. Do not ask an old dog to learn new tricks.
The  final stages of the All Ireland Club competitions were played under infuence of 'experimental  rules' .eg. Hand pass and card system.  Port Laois could justifiablly take their  case to DRA / High Court. Most unfair and injustice to managers , players and supporters. It is time that Christy began listening  to the people rather than his (civil servants)officials .   

I've no problem going along with that.
It demeans meaningful competitions to use them for experimental chopping and changing. Portlaois, St Galls and every other club concerned began the All Ireland Club Championships with a common set of rules that applied to all games. To change some of those rules at the closing stages introduced an element of chance that wasn't there up to that point and may have skewed the championships from that point onwards. Fair play to Galls, they were playing in the closing games with the same rules as their opponents and I think they won out on merit.
But Portlaois may well be feeling sore and the same goes for many other teams who were knocked out earlier. IMO, any competition that begins with one set of rules should finish under the same conditions.
Much the same goes for the national league. Why aren't those yearly experiments tried out in underage games first? As far as I know, they go straight from the planning stage to the playing field in senior competitions and from here on it's a case of "let's try this out and see what happens." I know they are tried out in pre-season leagues like the FDB but they carry over to the league with the certain knowledge that most won't pass Congress. Then the players have to re-adapt to the old rules once again for the Championships that follows so close to the end of the league.

[mountainboii]

The new rules were not in place for the club championship.

[drici]

[Tyrone Dreamer]

The new rules were not in place for the club championship.

Maybe not officially but the referee definately applied the new hand pass rule on Wednesday. He was even blowing up proper fist passes so maybe he just thinks the hand pass should be out lawed completely.

[samwin08]

The competition was completed under the old rules, but the referees are trained ( and assessors ) in applying the experimental rules hence the ambiguity over the hand pass and yellow cards. The referee cannot be expected  to switch over from Sunday rules to Wednesday rules whilst  making split second decisions, so there in lies the problem. I think the Croke Park officials should acknowledge their ambiguity , make  a public apology to all clubs who competed in the latter stages of the Club series and accept  their contribution  to  the Port Laois affair.

[Croí na hÉireann]

The new rules were not in place for the club championship.

Maybe not officially but the referee definately applied the new hand pass rule on Wednesday. He was even blowing up proper fist passes so maybe he just thinks the hand pass should be out lawed completely.

No he didn't, he clearly signaled that the player had thrown the ball, i.e. there was no clear striking action. Jaysus, if we don't pull people up on this we'll soon be playing rugby with a round ball...

[Tyrone Dreamer]

The new rules were not in place for the club championship.

Maybe not officially but the referee definately applied the new hand pass rule on Wednesday. He was even blowing up proper fist passes so maybe he just thinks the hand pass should be out lawed completely.

No he didn't, he clearly signaled that the player had thrown the ball, i.e. there was no clear striking action. Jaysus, if we don't pull people up on this we'll soon be playing rugby with a round ball...

There was a clear striking action in every one he blew. For one there was a clear striking action and a closed fist.

[Croí na hÉireann]

The new rules were not in place for the club championship.

Maybe not officially but the referee definately applied the new hand pass rule on Wednesday. He was even blowing up proper fist passes so maybe he just thinks the hand pass should be out lawed completely.

No he didn't, he clearly signaled that the player had thrown the ball, i.e. there was no clear striking action. Jaysus, if we don't pull people up on this we'll soon be playing rugby with a round ball...

There was a clear striking action in every one he blew. For one there was a clear striking action and a closed fist.

That's your interpretation, the referee's opinion is the one that counts. Do you now agree that the referee wasn't applying the "new rules"

[Hardy]

Shouldn't this have come first?

[Rossfan]

This shambles must be stopped. If the GAA wish to change the rules , then begin at school level and phase in rules to Senior gradually over 5-10 years. Do not ask an old dog to learn new tricks.
The  final stages of the All Ireland Club competitions were played under infuence of 'experimental  rules' .eg. Hand pass and card system.  Port Laois could justifiablly take their  case to DRA / High Court. Most unfair and injustice to managers , players and supporters. It is time that Christy began listening  to the people rather than his (civil servants)officials .   

What a load of paranoid nonsense.
Cards have been in operation for years.
Taking the head off a man was always a red card offence.
Handpasses are always supposed to have a striking action
Portlaoise should look in the mirror and ask themselves a few hard questions and Christy Cooney is doing grand.

[omagh_gael]

Duffy calls for match bans

Paraic Duffy and GAA president Christy Cooney at today's launch of the GAA Annual Report
22 March 2010

In his annual report to Congress, GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has said that the introduction of match bans instead of time based penalties is something the GAA must seriously consider.

"The idea of specific 'match bans' in the GAA has long been suggested as one way of addressing the inequities that arise in terms of suspensions in our games," writes Duffy.

"This situation is particularly noticeable at intercounty level, where the irregular nature of fixture scheduling means that at times there are frequently 4 or 5 week gaps between championships games and in a scenario where the 'four weeks' suspension is most common in our games, it leads to a situation where many players effectively do not miss a single game, despite being suspended for four weeks."



In making his case Duffy gives the example of the 16 players who received eight weeks suspensions during the 2009 season. Four missed no games, four missed just one game, one missed two games, one missed three games, five missed four games and one missed five games.

"There is an obvious and clear imbalance is any system where one player serves no suspension for the same offence that another player can miss five games for.

"I am confident that we will be in a position to propose a workable and acceptable system to the 2011 Annual congress for the consideration of our members. A key component of this will be that match bans at inter-county level should be carried over into the following year's competitions and from league competitions into championships."

On proposed changes to the championship formats, Duffy believes that the current provincial system serves the GAA well and talk on moving away from that does not take into account the way that clubs and county's administer nationally through their provinces.

"It is a simple fact that games in the provincial championships continue to attract a significantly larger attendance that those in the first four rounds of the qualifiers, even when the exact same counties are involved.

"For most counties, a provincial title remains a realistic and desirable championship goal at the start of each season. The fact that attendances have remained constant at provincial games since the introduction of the qualifiers would seem to indicate that our supporters feel likewise.

"Many of those who criticise the provincial system claim that the introduction of the All-Ireland qualifiers has diminished the championships because of the essential 'do or die' element is no longer a factor. One is led to wonder, therefore, why it is that the most oft-quoted alternative is a 'Champions League' style group of four structure, a system that would even further diminish the knock-out spirit of the championships."

The new playing rules currently under consideration also come up for mention and Duffy is critical of those who denounce experimental playing rules even before they have had a chance to consider them at length.

"What I find dispiriting about the debate on these rules is the haste with which people express their opinion on experimental rules even before experimentation has begun. The whole idea of experimenting with change is to see how the theory will operate in practice.

"Yet, whether it concerns disciplinary or playing rules, the same small group of 'experts' ritually decry the changes before most players, supporters and administrators even had the chance to see the proposed changes in action."

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=125861


I for one hope this is something that will appear sooner rather than later, it really is a ridiculous system!

[guevara]

The GAA needs to adopt the "Game Ban" policy outlined by Duffy.
For too long our own Pig Headedness has led to the discarding of legitimate ways to improve our game just because another sport may have a sytem of a similar nature.
Within the GAA there are far too many boys know they can give a boy a dig in the mouth & be well aware that he has every chance of being back playing in the next round if his team progresses.
It promotes cowardice behaviour & allows our outdated rules to be manipulated by County Boards & other teams.

We bring about some of the most ridiculous "new rules" each year on an experimental basis when it is clearly evident there are far more obvious areas that need to be looked at.
Also the points system for repetitive offenders would cut out a lot of the acts of bravado that have become all to common throughout the year.
You can still have a good hard hitting physical game played within the rules that would be a lot easier for referees to control & for the better players to flourish in.
If say every time yu got a yellow card you received 2 points in the system & on reaching certain points totals you would encounter an automatic ban. So for example 10 points = 1 game ban......20 points.....2 games & so on
Our game needs to clean up some of the bullshit that follows it every year & in my opinion this is one area that could be improved drastically!

[orangeman]

Tipperary football manager John Evans has lashed out at GAA officials, insisting that there is an obvious bias in refereeing decisions, favouring bigger and more successful counties.

Evans was left fuming following his side's NFL Division Two defeat to Donegal on Saturday and pointed the finger squarely at the referee's interpretation of the hand pass rule.

'I can now say, quite categorically, from the last three games (against Down, Meath and Donegal) that this hand pass (rule) is a bloody joke.

'The sooner they get rid of it, the better - not once were the opposition pulled for it. Not once were Meath pulled for it, not once were Down pulled for it. We've been pulled 18 or 19 times in the three games. No matter what statistics you look at, the underdogs get nailed with these things,' Evans said in the Examiner.'Every time we play Cork, Kerry, Meath, Down or Donegal, these established powers, it's always the technical frees that officialdom are laying on us. When you're the underdog, it's very difficult to make a breakthrough. You're pulled for technicalities.

'We're in an U21 Munster final and you can rest assured that the crowd will have an influence on the referee. They'll have all the support with them. We're hurting because all the calls are given against the underdog.'

'I'll go back to the U21 Munster final last year. We played Cork; referees melting through the floorboards. Go through the statistics from that game again - it was hand passes, short frees, not being 14 yards away. We had the same thing again tonight. It's twice as difficult being an underdog and trying to establish yourself,' Evans added.

'We'll go up to Armagh and we'll try to compete with them but you can rest assured, we won't get anything. It's a case of placate the crowd, the big dog, the team on top.'

[Hardy]

Extended whinge of the year award.

John, there may be an important clue in here: "we've been pulled 18 or 19 times in the three games".