Leinster chair Liam O'Neill has called for a reduction in the opportunities to appeal disciplinary decisions. In this he is echoing sentiments expressed by GAA director general Liam Mulvihill in his annual report delivered to last April's congress.

The context for O'Neill's comments, made in Sunday's match programme for the Dublin-Laois provincial semi-final, was the long-running saga of the six Offaly replacements that was pursued by opponents Kildare through the GAA's disciplinary process and finally to the Disputes Resolution Authority. All bodies dismissed the charge that Offaly had acted contrary to rule in bringing on the six players in the match against Kildare.

However, the case held up the championship and as a result the second provincial semi-final between Offaly and Wexford is being staged on the same bill as Sunday's Leinster hurling final.

"The setting up of the DRA has unwittingly led to an extra layer of appeals in our system and this will inevitably cause delays if people continue to contest decisions to the limit," said O'Neill.

"The fact that there are avenues of appeal available does not make their use mandatory. Because the county officers were mandated to pursue this as far as they could, Kildare ended up losing four times.

"Firstly they were beaten on the pitch. They lost again when our Leinster Games Administration Committee ruled that Offaly had broken no rule. Their appeal to the Central Appeals Committee failed also, and finally they lost the DRA case. In my opinion, three opportunities to contest a result is at least one opportunity too many. We need to find a way to cut out at least one layer of appeal.

"Our Central Appeals Committee should have more legal experts among its members to cut down on the need to resort to the DRA for routine rule interpretations. The DRA could then be kept to deal with disputes, which is why it was set up in the first place."

O'Neill also called on such cases to be expedited to ensure championships were not delayed to the extent that had happened in Leinster.

In April Mulvihill had called for the abolition of the CAC, even though the appeals body has been in existence for only a year, on much the same grounds - that there were too many opportunities to appeal decisions.

"The most disappointing aspect to discipline is the extent to which clubs and counties go to defend the wrong-doers and a huge amount of time is wasted on futile hearings, re-hearings and appeals caused by such behaviour," said Mulvihill.

"Many cases have also been taken to the Disputes Resolution Authority - including a few arising from intercounty games - and it means that we need to consider if there are too many layers of hearings for such cases and if the current appeals bodies are appropriate or effective in terms of serving the association.

"Is there any point in having cases dealt with by the Central Appeals Committee since they all have a right to go to the DRA as well? By taking out this layer of decision-making, we could shorten the whole process."

Meanwhile the GAA yesterday announced details of the All-Ireland qualifier process in both codes. Counties who had championship matches at the weekend are given an extra week to prepare. This means the stand-out fixture between Laois and Tyrone goes ahead on Saturday week in Portlaoise with a throw-in time of 7pm.

Offaly will have their first home qualifier fixture in two years when the hurlers face Limerick in Tullamore this coming Saturday evening in a Group B qualifier. The county ground at Birr, more usually associated with the hurlers, is deemed too small with a capacity of only 5,000.

Tullamore has just seen the completion of a new stand, which will be open for the first time. Although the redevelopment is not yet complete, there will be a capacity of around 13,000.

Eventually the ground is set to hold between 25,000 and 30,000.