GAA president Liam O'Neill has expressed regret about the controversy caused by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody's remarks about All-Ireland referee Barry Kelly. Cody was last week cleared of a misconduct charge in respect of these remarks but warned about his future behaviour.

The president, speaking at yesterday’s launch of the GAA National Club Draw Launch, said he had been out of the country at the association’s Asian Games and European finals when the controversy arose.

"I support referees. I preface my remarks by saying I have huge regard for both people in this story. Brian Cody is probably the most successful manager of all time; fantastic hurler, a fantastic person to give to the GAA at local level, travels the country speaking to groups and takes nothing for it.

“He does the same with his job in Kilkenny – does that free gratis as well. I would regard Barry Kelly as one of the greatest referees ever. I think he contributed to a fantastic final and it’s a source of regret to me that afterwards, that the joy of Kilkenny’s win and the performance of Barry Kelly were taken out of what I thought was a very good context.

“Other than that, I wouldn’t have any comment to make. I have huge admiration for them both. I wouldn’t really like to get involved in a row.”

He said he believed respect for referees had improved and that the GAA should be grateful for their efforts. “I’m sure every referee gets up on the morning of whatever match he is doing and wants to do the best job he can. They wouldn’t do it otherwise. It is a satisfaction game and they work very hard. I think we owe a huge debt to them, they do it for nothing too you know – they get the various expenses for going to the game and looking after their umpires, that’s it.”

Asked did he think Barry Kelly would referee another Kilkenny match, O'Neill said that hardly any such appointments would be made by the Central Referees Appointments Committee during his presidency, which ends in February.

"I really don't know; that wouldn't be my business. It would be unfair of me to comment on what's going on. I am finished now with the appointment of referees. In my term there won't be any referees appointed only for a few National League matches."

Previous call

He reiterated a previous call for retired intercounty players to get involved in refereeing. “I’m finished with refereeing other than that I have expressed a wish that more intercounty players, when they are finished, would be encouraged into refereeing. I would love to see the stock of referees enhanced by having some ex-players come in.”

The president also spoke about the imminent report of the sub-committee on fixtures, which will propose that the All-Ireland club championships be concluded within the calendar year.

“I’ve said all along that fixture-making is about decision-making and if you decide to add competitions and if you decide to change nothing, you’re going to get no good result. If you keep on doing the same thing you can expect the same results, in business, in life, in sport and in anything.

“So we’re going to have to come up with proposals to change things and I think that the idea of running the competitions within the calendar year will force us to make decisions along the line and force us to change the intercounty structure and the sequence in which we play our games.

“Everything’s open. We’ll be looking at sequencing. We are aware that the sequence as it is now maximises the publicity for our games at a very important time of the year and if we change that we know there’ll be a knock-on effect. But if we keep on doing what we’re doing nothing will change.”

The proposals will go to next month’s Central Council meeting with a view to submitting them to next February’s congress.

Club draw initiative

O’Neill also spoke about the club draw initiative, which is organised and supplied with prizes by Croke Park the proceeds of which are kept by the clubs,

“It’s significant that we have taken on all the costs. We’re giving the club the means to earn up to €20,000 each and we’re expecting that pick up will be even bigger than last year.

“It’s important in that this is something purely for the clubs. And we don’t often get the chance to do that. While we say the clubs are the important units of the organisation – and they are – this is a way of getting funding to them. They’ve embraced it. They’re pleased by it. And they’re looking forward to participating again.”