The GAA hope to announce the composition of the new Central Disciplinary Committee this afternoon, according to association president Seán Kelly. The CDC is to take charge of all national disciplinary issues and needs to be in place before the championships start the weekend after next.

"We're just putting the finishing touches to it and trying to contact the last one or two people. But I would hope to be able to announce it tomorrow," Kelly told The Irish Times yesterday.

The new committee was approved by the recent congress, which accepted a report from a task force chaired by Páraic Duffy proposing the splitting of the old Games Administration Committee into two functions, dealing with discipline and fixtures.

"It will be an independent committee," says Kelly, "appointed, not elected, so there will be no pressure on members from outside. This has taken two years to get up and running and it is important to see that it works."

The announcement will be on the agenda of a media conference convened to launch the Integration Report on moves to bring the women's Gaelic sports associations under the Croke Park umbrella. It is also expected that the draws for the new Ring and Rackard Cups will be done this afternoon.

The president also commented on moves announced at congress to reform the current National Hurling Leagues. There has been growing disquiet over the disparity of standards in the 12-team Division One, which has led to some heavily one-sided matches.

Kelly was quick to emphasise that necessary reforms couldn't be put on the long finger by counties unwilling to surrender their status without a season's notice.

"They might have to do it if it's deemed necessary in the best interests of hurling. If something is not working, it needs to be looked at and assessed. It's easy to say you can't do anything but the concerns are there. At times it's been very lop-sided and that produces some terrible games. This year seems to have been worse if anything.

"Nobody's going to be cast off into the outer darkness and it would be better for teams to compete at a realistic level - from their own point of view."

The most popular recommendation is likely to be the reinstatement of an eight-team Division One, a structure that hasn't been used in the NHL for eight years.

"That's going to be a serious consideration," says Kelly. "It worked very well when the calendar year was introduced in 1997, but since then there's been no opportunity to try it out for a few seasons. So we're not getting the most out of the calendar year season."

The Ring and Rackard Cups, All-Ireland competitions for Tier Two and Tier Three counties, are to start this summer and the draws for this season are to be announced today. The Hurling Development Committee have drawn up these competitions on the basis of a home-and-away structure over a two-year cycle.

Twelve counties will contest this year's senior All-Ireland, the McCarthy Cup, and there will be no need to activate the mechanism whereby the Ulster hurling champions would be accommodated were a county other than Antrim - already included in the 12 - to win the provincial title.

Both Down and Derry have indicated that they will be happy to contest the Ring Cup even if they were to be successful in the Ulster championship.

Meanwhile, Armagh's only injury concern after Sunday's football league semi-final win over Mayo involves full forward Ronan Clarke, who scored three valuable points before limping off in the closing minutes with an ankle injury.

But the Pearse Óg clubman's withdrawal was more of a precautionary measure, and the injury is not expected to keep Clarke out of Sunday's meeting with Wexford.