Time For Some Common Sense

Saturday highlighted some of the most daft rules floating around European G.A.A. and we didn't escape their grasp.

Apparently there was a complaint about some over-zealous tackling at recent tournaments and the referees decided to crackdown early in the day on Saturday. Personally, I have rarely seen a dirty stroke being pulled in my five years playing here. There have been injuries, two particularly bad ones in Budapest which I commented on already. There is hardly a discipline problem though bar the few eruptions between ourselves and The Hague last year and a few other teams have had the red mist too I’m sure. But such heated exchanges are part of the game and are indicative of the competitive nature of European G.A.A., which is so important to keep us all interested.

Anyway, on Saturday Conor Mul received two yellow cards in the first half of the first game, which meant he was sent off. At home that would mean he would be suspended for the rest of the match. Not in Europe though where we have a ridiculous rule that means you are suspended for two games!!! The impact on Conor Mul was that unless the B's made the final, he would not play again that day. The B's didn't get that far so Conor Mul could not play again.

How right is that? A guy leaves Brussels at 05h30 on a bus and his day is over after ten minutes. Were they frees? For sure, but yellow cards were very harsh. Imagine if he had forked out +/- €300 for flights/hotel? Of course, the rules must be applied but they should be applied consistently (in terms of referees judgement) and with common sense.

Even more ridiculous was a rule I discovered just before the throw-in at the final. Pearce was informed that because he received a yellow card in the semi, if he were to receive one yellow card in the final, he would be sent off i.e. the yellow card carries!! How crazy is that?! Even the Amsterdam lads were saying it shouldn't be applied. Now, in fairness to Mick Cryan, the refereee, he had to follow the rule so there was no point in remonstrating with him. Pearce wasn't sent off and we managed to win thankfully.

Now let me get on my high horse. It was last year when the two yellows equals a two game suspension came to my attention after Conor received a 'ban'. When it was time to submit motions for the County Convention, I sent our committee a mail outlining a couple of suggested motions, one of which related to this rule. I never received a reply and the club submitted some very technical motions which even if changed would have no meaningful impact on our players. I'm sure Conor Mul will push a bit harder this year.

Another rule which came under the spotlight on Saturday was one concerning A and B teams. I'm open to correction but my understanding of the rule is that you must name your A and B panel at the start of the day. You can only bring a B player up for emergency cover i.e. you are down to ten players due to injuries. That is the jist of it anyway. We were fairly p1ssed off when this rule was pushed through in the last couple of years as we were the only team consistently fielding two teams and felt it was somewhat 'anti-participation' in nature and a direct hit on us.

On Saturday, Amsterdam brought up players from their B's for the final. They were good players too, one a weekend player I think. Colin Byrne was dual assigned as player and CCO on the day which meant he should make a decision on whether it was ok or not. Mick Cryan highlighted the issue before throw-in. We had already decided not to make an issue out of it, partly as a matter of principle but also because Colin's position was compromised. If he were not to allow Amsterdam bring the players up, it would look like a conflict of interest, even if it was not. I'm not sure were Amsterdam even aware that they were breaking a rule.

The third issue which arose on Saturday was score keeping. Lux lost a semi to Amsterdam when they were adamant that they had outscored their opponents. It's happened us twice before. Our B's lost a game to Amsterdam B's in Amsterdam last month when a goal was wrongly assigned. Two years ago, we believed we won a semi in Maastricht by a goal. The ref had it as a draw. We lost in extra-time.

I'm not sure of the solution to this. The refs are out on the field for the entire day, often in very hot conditions. To maintain concentration can't be easy. They usually have umpires who are far from focused and many scores are contested. As I said when I picked up the cup and thanked the refs on Saturday, whether you are in Croke Park or Frankfurt, players will contest decisions. On occasion, in both places, the ref may make a mistake. That's understandable but it is very difficult for a team to accept defeat in those circumstances.

Anyway, the G.A.A. is a democracy so we will have our time to speak, assuming we can get through internal club democracy first of course!!