APRIL RULES DAY CRUCIAL; GAA BRENNAN TO CHAIR HEATED DEBATE.Byline: ORLA BANNON NICKEY Brennan Nickey Brennan (born 3 December, 1953) is a former Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Conahy Shamrocks and with the Kilkenny senior inter-county team in the 1970s. Brennan is currently the President of the Gaelic Athletic Association. is confident the playing rule changes will get the two-thirds majority required to be passed at congress later this month. Brennan's last meaningful act as GAA President will be to chair what should be a heated debate over the controversial rules experiment at annual congress in Cork on April 18. He believes a major step was taken towards getting the rules passed when Central Council decided to split the rules into 15 separate motions. Brennan admitted: "We felt that putting them in as one package would make it too easy to throw them all out. "If they decide not to support them they have to answer during the course of the summer as to why they say these aren't disruptive fouls. "People have to stand up and be counted and I strongly urge them to vote them in. We will have better games, everybody will be happier with them. "I am not denying there are areas we have to keep focusing on but we will have better games and it will bring dividends to the Association if we accept them." There is a perception that as the Allianz league campaigns have progressed, more and more counties, managers and players are beginning to doubt their merits. Top bosses like Mickey Harte
Mickey Harte is the current manager of Tyrone Gaelic football team, and has so far led them to two All-Ireland titles. , who backed the rules earlier in the year, are now not in favour. A lack of consistency in the application of these rules has been the main bone of contention with a lot of managers and Brennan accepted that referees have not covered not covered Health care adjective Referring to a procedure, test or other health service to which a policy holder or insurance beneficiary is not entitled under the terms of the policy or payment system–eg, Medicare. Cf Covered. themselves in glory so far. "I think we will get better with regards to referees' consistency and interpretation,'' he claimed. "I accept that this (refereeing) is a work in process, but referees have been under enormous pressure during this experimental period and that will settle down a lot coming into the championship. "I hope things are getting more consistent. I would be very confident. "We have a very clear choice to make at congress - do we want a set of games where we allow cynical fouling, pulling down, dragging around the neck, or do we want to clean the games up once and for all? "Do we want games where the skilful player can show their skills? "One thing is clear - the notion that these rules take the physicality out of the games has been proven not to be the case." Brennan insisted he is "a democrat" and will accept what congress decides. However he said he will feel disillusioned if the cynicism is not stamped out of gaelic games Gaelic Games are the traditional sports played in Ireland. The two main Gaelic Games are Gaelic football and Hurling, both of which are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Other games organised by the association include Rounders, Gaelic handball. . "If the Association decides it wants games that have that cynicism and bad fouling in them, then fine. "They aren't the types of games Major categories: Sports
"Getting two-thirds to pass any motion is not easy but I would call on people to reflect on where they want these games to go. "A decision to reject these proposals wouldn't be good for the Association and that would be proven through the summer if they are rejected. "We have seen far more enjoyable games since these experimental rules have been brought in," he added. CAPTION(S): FOUL IF YOU THINK IT'S OVER Nickey Brennan is confident the new rules will be made permanent PUTT IT THERE Nickey Brennan helped launch the 2009 FBD FBD Fluid(ized) Bed Dryer FBD Fully Buffered DIMM (memory) FBD Free Body Diagram FBD Far Beyond Driven (album) FBD Functional Block Diagram(s) All Ireland GAA Golf Challenge yesterday at Croke Park |
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