Punishments need to be in line with actions It's January, the beginning of a new year - new hopes, new targets, new dreams. For many sports, January is a quiet time - a time to sit back, keep out of the headlines and prepare for the summer. Normally January is a quiet month for the GAA too, with subsidiary competitions and county conventions taking up only a few column inches. For the GAA, January 2006 was far from a quiet spell - in fact it was one headline after another and better still it was all positive. The opening up of Croke Park for soccer and rugby internationals was generally applauded nationwide and Sean Kelly was beaming from ear to ear with this 'win-win' situation. The huge attendances at the Mc Kenna cup and O'Byrne cup games indicated that the GAA was ever increasing in terms of popularity. Officially, the Tyrone v Armagh semi-final at Casement Park attracted over nineteen and a half thousand. The actual figure would be closer to twenty-five thousand as half way through the first half access gates had to be opened and hundreds were able to amble in free of charge. The publicity emanating from the Vodafone All Star trip to Singapore brought more positive headlines to the GAA. Over 3,000 attended the All Star game - the largest ever attendance at an All Star exhibition - and by all accounts, players reciprocated by staging an excellent match. With January gone, everything was rosy in the GAA garden, the fact that they had secured a deal with Setanta for the NFL floodlight games added further optimism. With the onset of the NFL, more positive headlines lay ahead - NOT! Tyrone V Dublin on the 5th February was to be the glamour tie of Round One - Leinster champions v All Ireland champions. It certainly made the headlines all right but for all the wrong reasons. 'The battle of Omagh' is how some scribes characterised the clash. Some went as far as suggesting the game should have been abandoned and the two counties thrown out of the competition. T.V, radio and print media devoted a huge amount of time and space to the game in Healy Park. But did it warrant so much negative criticism? By all means I condemn the unsavoury incidents that took place and, as a spectacle, the game was a disaster. But on the back of this I couldn't help feeling that there were those within our association who were very quick to put the boot in. At the time of writing the CDC have not made any decisions regarding suspensions but I hope they do not respond illogically to those calling for severe action. What is the suspension for running thirty yards and pulling a player back or holding onto someone? Granted the scenes were not nice to witness but the very sight of 10/12 players running at speed to get involved probably looked worse than what was actually happening. How many serious blows were delivered and how many were actually injured in this so called 'Battle of Omagh'? Interviewed after the game, Sean Cavanagh agreed that if anyone was caught on camera then they deserved to be punished. Subsequent viewings of the match reveal that whilst there were a lot of players in the melee pushing and pulling, there were very few caught striking. Whilst anticipating that the CDC will use common sense in relation to suspensions, one must acknowledge that something has to be done to prevent such scenes from happening again. It is much too simplistic to blame just the players 'over zealous approach' or the managers 'win at all costs' attitude, or the 'indecisiveness of the referee'. Rather than apportion blame I believe it is imperative that referees will have some form of action to take to prevent the recurrence of such scenes again. In a previous article, I highlighted the need to have a band of top referees. These men will be paid if necessary to analyse matches, improve their own fitness levels and to develop a style of refereeing that provides consistency. Now a days there is too much at stake for teams not to scrutinise referees before important matches. From ref to ref there is often a huge variance in their interpretation of rules and players will know how far to push or not to push certain refs. In rugby, whenever a referee makes a controversial decision, you will not see a rush of 7/8 players to surround and barrack him. The GAA must strive to reach a similar plateau, whereby players will know that they or their team will be punished for dissent. Now that we have jumped into bed with our rugby counterparts I believe we can learn from another facet in their game - the sin bin. This sanction, if used properly, could be of huge importance to the GAA. At present there are many instances when the ref feels he should be taking strict action but knows that a sending off may be too severe. Take for example the initial scuffle in eth Tyrone V Dublin game after five minutes. The referee ended up booking Brian Meenan and Alan Brogan. After the game, with the benefit of hindsight many experts criticised Paddy Russell for not stamping his authority and sending the two boys off. Russell had not the benefit of hindsight and made the right decision to book them. However if he'd had the power to sin bin them for 15-20 minutes then I think he would have done so, sending out a clear message. Again like so many other rules, the sin bin will only be an effective deterrent if the referee uses common sense. The last thing we need would be a game of 12 V 9 and players being sin binned for inoccuous challenges but if used wisely and consistently by the referees then I think it could only help our game and maybe reduce the likelihood of melees developing. From a footballing perspective Dublin will see their victory in Omagh as a huge step in their march to All-Ireland glory. They have made steady progress under Paul Caffery and to defeat Tyrone in the manner they did will give them further self-belief and confidence. Tyrone, I feel, will learn more from their defeat. They will realise that life at the top is not always so nice and they will be more than ready for the physical confrontations that lie ahead, and how to respond. In the aftermath of the Dublin game they will have noticed that they are not as well perceived in some media circles as All-Ireland Champions should be. I have a funny feeling the players will be reminded of some of these 'tasty' post match comments pre-championship. Round two of the NFL threw up yet more surprises, with the big two in Ulster suffering yet another defeat. Predicting the winners of Division 1 A and 1B does not appear as straightforward as it did at the beginning of the campaign. Sticking my neck out I'll plump for Mayo and Kerry from 1A and Derry and Meath from 1B. For the NFL final - well what odds a repeat of the All Ireland final 10 years ago - Meath v Mayo? Congratulations to John Moore University, Liverpool on winning the British Universities Championship. I was privileged to be invited over to the university championships in Birmingham in Mid February. Like the Sigerson, all games were keenly contested and every ball was fought hard for. Also like the spirit of Sigerson the students were adept at relaxing and unwinding after a tough game. The senior final saw the big two in Liverpool facing each other. This derby made the Liverpool/Everton games look like childs play. In a hard-hitting but fair encounter, John Moores held onto win by the smallest of margins over bitter rivals Liverpool Hope University. Well done to Pete Mossey and George O'Rourke for the effort they made in ensuring that the competition was a success. With an ever-increasing number of young men and women crossing the water to study for third level education, it is important that they get the chance to participate and progress in Gaelic games wherever their studies may take them. Tweet

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