Get your thinking caps on to tackle the nonsense

Paul Brennan reflects on the latest round of violence at a sporting event and asks can and should more be done to stop it

OU will have heard the news of the referee above in Westmeath who was assaulted after a soccer game this week to such an extent that he had to be hospitalised with serious facial injuries. The reaction has been what you’d expect: disgust and revulsion that an official would be set upon and beaten like this, with three players allegedly the perpetrators.

This attack comes only a few weeks after a number of incidents at Gaelic football matches, which if it proves just thing it’s that no sport is immune from the reckless and violent behaviour of individuals, be they players, mentors or spectators.

In light of what has been regarded as a fairly light touch by some of the relevant GAA authorities in dealing with those recent incidents, vis-à-vis the sanctions handed down, it will be interesting to see how the soccer people deal with this assault if and when the perpetrators can be brought to book. Interesting, too, to see what, if any, action the referee takes in terms of a criminal or civil action against those who viciously assaulted him.

(On Wednesday the referee gave an interview from his hospital bed saying he forgave those responsible, which really proves the adage that to err is human but to forgive is divine.)

It’s goes without saying that whoever beat up that referee in a car park outside that soccer ground was acting in a reprehensible way that is way off the charts in terms of what constitutes having an acceptable grievance with an official or opponent. What’s alleged to have happened there is a grievous assault and should be handed over the Gardaí to investigate and prosecute.

But how many times have other incidents at or around soccer fields or GAA pitches or other sporting events and venues sailed perilously close to the wind with regard to them going from a ‘move along nothing to see here dust-up’ to someone getting seriously injured and ending up in hospital?

No will like us bringing it up here, but how might one or two incidents in this county in the recent past have ended up had a punch connected a little differently or landed in a slightly different area?

Of course it’s ultimately individuals who are responsible for their own actions, and there is only so much that sporting organisations and authorities can do to prevent individuals losing the plot and assaulting another. But what about those things the governing bodies can do to cut out or at least reduce the number of ‘one in all in’ melees that have sullied Gaelic football - and other sports - games up and down the country of late?

Certainly there have been a few eyebrows raised at the leniency of some of the suspensions handed down to individuals singled out from these fights, and while the Down County Board have thrown Ballyholland Harps and RGU Downpatrick out of next year’s Championship for their involvement in a massed brawl last month, it will be interesting to see if that ban still holds when that Championship comes around next year.

Over the next few weeks counties all over the country will hold their annual GAA conventions, and it’s been a long-time bugbear of this column the lack of imagination among clubs when it comes to submitting motions to same. It never ceases to amaze and amuse us how much people - club players and members - will moan and whine about a whole range of things they say is wrong with the game and the Association but then fall oddly silent when the one chance to speak up comes around: their AGM or Convention.

Every year in every county there will be well-intentioned but ultimately pointless motions about rural depopulation or All-Ireland tickets, but seldom will there be a well thought out and potentially game-changing motion that might actually, really, make the whole gig a little better.

How about club members get together in the next week or two, have a proper think and discussion about what might actually make a real difference, draft the motion properly so it cannot be ruled out of order, and come to Convention with a strong argument to back up the motion so that at least the other delegates have to really think about what they’re voting on?

And how about club members in Cork reflect on some of the nonsense they’ve seen in a few - and, yes, it’s only been a very small number - club games this year and try to formulate a motion or two that might stop the nonsense.

And with a little imagination it doesn’t necessarily have to be punitive. Sure, there definitely needs to a ‘stick’ in terms of appropriate disciplinary sanctions for serious transgressors, but how about some sort of ‘carrot’ too.

What about implementing some sort of ‘Fair Play’ award for clubs? How about rewarding teams/ clubs for good disciplinary records (even though that should be the baseline) whereby every club pays in a some of money (call it a good behaviour bond) and the best behaved are rewarded out of that pot at the end of the season.

It can’t be too difficult for an account of yellow/red/black cards to be totted up as the season moves along, with referees perhaps scoring a team out of five or ten on their overall discipline in a match.

Have a team or club start on 100 and be deducted a point for a yellow, two for a black, three for a red. Or count it up the other way.

Maybe start with juvenile teams and have Rebel Óg start a Fair Play League, with the best teams getting rewarded with something worth getting.

Make the rewards something decent for every player – trainers, shopping vouchers, concert tickets – so that if someone is constantly stepping out of line it impacts on their team mates to the point that they might try to pull that player into line.

Think about it: a player always feels they’ve let their team mates down if they get sent off in a game, but if their indiscipline is also costing them a mobile phone or a pair of expensive trainers or a weekend away they might think twice before wading into a brawl and throwing a slap.

I don’t even know how or if something like that can be put into a motion for Convention but the conversation needs to be had and some creative thinking has to be engaged in. Of course, that’s if the will is even there to do something about it.

Otherwise everyone involved in the GAA this week will have looked at the picture of that bashed up soccer referee and thought ‘there but for the grace of God’ and then just move on.

If this season of AGMs and Conventions is allowed to pass without something meaningful being done to tackle the isolated but very real scourge of on-field violence, then we can expect more of the same on the playing fields to one extent or another.

Doing the same thing (or nothing) over and over and expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity, according to Albert Einstein. Don’t be insane; get your thinking caps on.