GAA PRESIDENT Christy Cooney has set his face against further rule changes or even discussion thereof in his remaining two years in office. Speaking after annual congress had accepted only 40 per cent (21 out of 49) of the motions on changes to the playing rules, the president said that it was time to accept the status quo.
“I am of the view that they should be left sit, let’s get on with the games, let’s apply the rules that are there and apply them well and let all our players play to those rules and our referees do likewise with regard to the management of our games and give our games a chance to settle.
“I would hope that in my next two congresses that we wouldn’t have any more motions around playing rules, etcetera, or anything around that area. We’ve had a lot of chopping and changing over years and now it’s time for us to move forward. We don’t want controversy around ‘this should go and that should go’. We are where we are and let’s move on.”
Playing rules may be debated only every five years so there won’t be any further proposals to change Part II of the Official Guide until 2015 but the president’s attitude appeared to rule out any other proposals to change policy in related areas, such as discipline.
The playing rules carnage on Friday night in respect of the football proposals wasn’t as pronounced in hurling with a number of technical amendments accepted but the major initiatives, such as allowing two points for putting a sideline cut directly over the bar, all bit the dust.
One change did see the provision of a 65-metre free, every time a player fouls a puck-out by stepping out too far, abolished and a throw-in on the 20-metre line will instead be the future punishment.
One area of change in relation to the rules that was accepted was the restructuring of the inter-county hurling championships. There won’t be any relegation between the various tiers for the next three championships but counties winning their respective grade will have the option of being promoted, raising the possibility of the MacCarthy Cup field rising from 12 to 15 by 2012.
There was a brief re-emergence of the football rules debate when former Armagh captain Jarlath Burns tried to get standing orders suspended for a reconsideration of the proposal to allow the mark.
The matter had been dispatched on Friday night after a show of hands indicated the proposal hadn’t enough support and Cooney declared all motions on the subject lost. Subsequently he ruled out any revisiting of a matter already decided by congress.
