GAA Sin Bin To Return????

New GAA president Liam O’Neill is planning to reintroduce the sin-bin in an attempt to curb growing indiscipline at inter-county level.

In his inauguration address to Congress on Saturday, the Laois man told delegates he is considering putting together a work group to revisit the 2009 experimental disciplinary rules and modify the original proposals.

O’Neill and GAA head of games Pat Daly introduced the sin-bin experiment for the leagues three years ago and were marginally unsuccessful in getting the motion through at Congress in Cork, failing to reach the necessary two-thirds majority by 2%.

The experiment saw yellow-carded players being replaced by a designated substitute with such dismissals incurred by striking, kicking, stamping and contributing to a melee.

Statistics demonstrated the measures had not only cleaned up the game but increased scoring averages.

In his annual report this year director general Páraic Duffy argued in favour of them being reconsidered in light of the "mass defence" tactics that now hold sway in Gaelic football.

O’Neill confirmed he will shortly designate a committee to update the 2009 proposals.

"It won’t be my show this time. We came very near to getting it through, but we didn’t. The thing has moved on anyway. I think this thing of rolling round on the ground is gone, so we had limited success by highlighting it.

"I would like a fresh look and new people to take this on."

O’Neill is adamant indiscipline has to be tackled with zeal.

"I think in any disciplinary system from now we will be looking at making sure the person who is wrong pays."

He also suggested there might be an attempt to simplify the multi-layered disciplinary system. "I think the idea of the appeals group, having one shot at it, is something that should be looked at."

In his speech, the Trumera man also spoke of his plans to establish a new referee development committee and the possibility of recruiting retiring players as match officials. As managers especially at inter-county level become more and more powerful, O’Neill is considering putting together a qualification that they must attain if they are to be appointed by county boards.

Currently, there is a charter which all managers are instructed to buy into. But, as GAA director general Páraic Duffy pointed out in his annual report, it is not being abided by.

"At some stage we are going to have to set a standard for what we call the person in charge of a team, whether it is the term manager or what," stated O’Neill. "Should the GAA devise a course for managers and explain to people on the course you don’t get to be a club or county manager without having done the appropriate course?

"Could you set standards and use this as a way of getting into their heads what you want on discipline, what you want on the demands of players and so on. It wouldn’t be about control, it might be able to affect change."

O’Neill, who won’t take up the office full-time until he finishes out the school term as Trumera NS principal, has targeted games, finance and the youth/urban challenge as the areas he wants to address during his term in office. He also intimated inter-county competition structures don’t have to be confined within provincial boundaries.

Outgoing GAA president Christy Cooney revealed details of how Croke Park will invigilate counties’ financial relationships with their team managers.

"A compliance structure will be put in place in the coming months through which we will seek the commitment of our county board officers, Central Council representatives and managers which will reaffirm that all matters relating to the amateur status are being adhered to. External audit support will be in place as part of this project and non-conformity will see appropriate action taken. Our counties have spoken clearly and decisively on this issue. The time for posturing has come and gone and the time to implement our rules is before us."

Personally i would like to see the sin bin introduced but not for the reason that O'Neill expresses, such as kicking or striking which are straight red card offences anyway. There is a more prevelant need for the sin bin to be introduced to deal with the 'professional foul' which is becoming increasingly frequent in games.

Players seem more prepared to 'take one for the team' (no jibe at Donal Og intended). Thinking back to the Armagh v Kerry NFL game earlier this season Armagh on two occasions took the man out rather than concede a score. Brendan Donaghy was guilty on one occasion of a hand trip on the Kerry forward who had managed to evade his initial tackle. It happened again later in the game denying Kerry another possible goal. The result was two frees resulting in 2 points and Armagh winning the game by 4 points.

Had the sin bin being in use Armagh would have been reduced to 14 men for a 20 minute period (2x10minutes) and this could have changed the outcome of the game.

It was evident yesterday too particularly in the Kerry Mayo game, Darren O'Sullivan was taken out a few times as he gathered speed. I know its another job for a ref but it already works successfully in Ladies football and would act as a real deterrent to this increasingly annoying aspect of our game.

bocerty wrote:Had the sin bin being in use Armagh would have been reduced to 14 men for a 20 minute period (2x10minutes) and this could have changed the outcome of the game.

Had the sin bin been in use, Ciaran McKeever would have dropped to the ground with a sudden injury, and spent 5 minutes receiving treatment. Then they would have called Hearty up to take a free kick from 65m out, wasting a 'Cluxton' of time in doing so.

I'm not a fan of the sin-bin in gaelic football.

[quote="Thomas Clarke"]

bocerty wrote:Had the sin bin being in use Armagh would have been reduced to 14 men for a 20 minute period (2x10minutes) and this could have changed the outcome of the game.

Had the sin bin been in use, Ciaran McKeever would have dropped to the ground with a sudden injury, and spent 5 minutes receiving treatment. Then they would have called Hearty up to take a free kick from 65m out, wasting a 'Cluxton' of time in doing so.

I'm not a fan of the sin-bin in gaelic football.[/quote

i appreciate what your saying TC - introduce something like the sin bin and theres always some smart baxtard who will come up with a way of wasting time when they are down a man or men. However you cant deny the professional foul is becoming more and more prevalent and in the majority of cases they get away with it.

There has to be some deterrent whether it be a sin bin or a system like in soccer whereby if you accumulate so many yellow cards you face a suspension. Something needs to be done and done quick as it is ruining the game.

The GAA tried to bring in a new ruling on the card system about 4 years ago that would have sorted out a lot of problems in my book but unfortunately it did not get the required 2/3 majority for it to go through.

That was - Black Card = booking Yellow Card = enforced subsitution of offending player for the rest of the game (meaning that a team were not down to 14 men) and the Red Card = player sent off for the rest of the game and the team played with reduced numbers. I feel that this was a good way forward and simply not canvased enough to the counties at congress.

the Sin Bin is flawed in my book due to the time limit/ card happy referees and the disaster that they had when they last tried it!

bald eagle wrote:The GAA tried to bring in a new ruling on the card system about 4 years ago that would have sorted out a lot of problems in my book but unfortunately it did not get the required 2/3 majority for it to go through.

That was - Black Card = booking Yellow Card = enforced subsitution of offending player for the rest of the game (meaning that a team were not down to 14 men) and the Red Card = player sent off for the rest of the game and the team played with reduced numbers. I feel that this was a good way forward and simply not canvased enough to the counties at congress.

the Sin Bin is flawed in my book due to the time limit/ card happy referees and the disaster that they had when they last tried it!

forgot about that rule were the player was substituted after picking up a yellow BE, though in many ways the only teams who would suffer would be the weaker counties with small squads. Take the top 4-5 teams in the country if they were to lose a player to a yellow you would think the player coming on would be just as good (and sometimes better) as they one they were replacing.

The team as a whole suffers no real loss and so there is no real deterrent for a player not to take one for the team. I take your point about the referees etc but it works in ladies football.