Replying To s goldrick:  "yes but what if your team is losing by 1 point and the clock ticking down. you are trying to work the ball out of defence but you are cynically being stopped by wee silly fouls, surely this is as blatant as stopping someone who is through on goal. gaelic football is almost un-refereeable at the moment. gone are the days when, instead of trying to work the ball up the field to get someone on the ball in the scoring-zone, you just belted the ball as far as you could and hoped one of your forwards made something of it. The game has totally changed in recent years but we still have the same rules and the same set of officials. It is not working."

Replying To Greengrass:  "I think Eugene McGee is being harshly criticised and unjustly so. He has been called an impediment to progress.I don't believe he is. He has said that it is the agreed time for a review of the black card and he has said that that review would be better conducted in his absence. I disagree with an awful lot of what Eugene McGee has to say . He is overwhelmingly negative in his assessment of Gaelic Football and wrongly so in my opinion. However he correctly identified that cynicism in Gaelic Games was out of control and that it needed to be confronted and eliminated . The Football Review Committee, which he chaired, developed the idea of the black card for one simple reason that being that they believed it was the disciplinary sanction that had the best chance of being passed at Congress. They were right. It secured the requisite two thirds majority and was passed.
No other sanction would have passed and that includes the sin bin. The black card has largely been successful in eliminating the rugby tackle pull down and the off the ball body check of the runner coming through. I was opposed to the introduction of the black card. I would like to see it disposed of. However it is vital the black card is retained until a practical alternative that can be operated at all levels of the game has been passed at Congress. To dispose of it now without having an alternative sanction in place would see a return to the full blooded cynicism that previously prevailed.
I feel that Eugene McGee's comments in relation to Jim McGuinness were extremely petty and churlish and they served him and his cause very poorly. The black card has done some good and that should be recognised. I opposed it's introduction on the grounds that referees were failing miserably to properly administer the two cards already at their disposal. I felt that a third card would result in even more poor decisions and that has absolutely been the case. Players have suffered very unfairly at the hands of our referees and others have not been punished when they should have been. However until the naysayers come up with a viable alternative that can be administered at all levels of the game that they can steer through Congress then we need to retain the black card. The elephant in the room is Congress. It is a grossly inadequate forum for rule changes in the games. It is the real impediment to progress in our games."

Replying To alano12:  "but he isnt involved in football anymore..and like you said exceptionally negative about it..the wrong person to put over that commitee in my own view."

Replying To Donegalman:  "10 minutes in a sin bin would straighten things out nicely. No replacing players."

Replying To Donegalman:  "10 minutes in a sin bin would straighten things out nicely. No replacing players."