every Sunday for decades, and that it would continue to get them every Sunday until someone shouts stop or someone was seriously hurt. The GAA tried to shout stop after Omagh but failed.

We've tried to see things from Mickey Harte's point of view this past few days;

his integrity as a man as well as his standing in football has demanded it.

And on some grounds he's incontestably right. Ryan McMenamin, for all his past misdemeanours, should never have been in front of the CDC over Omagh; that day he was primarily peacemaker, not mischief maker. And ultimately it was right that the GAA's incompetent procedures were highlighted, especially Paddy Russell's second report. But quite frankly, Mickey, that's as far as we can go.

Harte claims the media reaction to Dublin-Tyrone was "excessive". If that's the case, then so is our reaction to when these teams win championship matches. Harte objects to the term "battle" of Omagh, that none of us saw any "battle". But was Conor Gormley's block on Stephen McDonnell towards the end of the 2003 All Ireland final really, as Harte claimed, an example of "bilocation"?

Were all 31 of his panel members that year an example of "genius"? Now, Einstein, he was a genius, Peter Canavan and Harte possibly too. But, with the greatest respect to them, numbers 25 to 31 on a county football panel in a small country called Ireland?

Harte and lawyer Fergal Logan contend that Tyrone players wouldn't have appealed the suspension had they been charged with, say, attempting to strike, rather than something as damning and indefinable as "bringing the association into disrepute".

And initially it seems a sound principle to fight the case on; why should Owen Mulligan and Kevin Hughes be among the first players charged of violating such a lofty ideal? But then you Google Lauren, Martin Keown, and Manchester United, and find that in the fallout of the Manchester United-Arsenal pushing match of September, 2003 . . .

an incident much tamer than Omagh . . . eight players were suspended under Rule E.

And what does Rule E say? "Part One: A participant shall at all times act in the best interest of the game and shall not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute.

Part Two: A participant shall not use any one or combination of the following: violent, threatening, abusive, incident or insulting words or behaviour." Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, was charged with E1 for confronting Martin Keown.

Even Harte will have to accept there was a lot of confronting in Omagh on February 5. And ultimately that there were plenty of examples of "bringing the association into disrepute".

Possibly the most disheartening comments of the past week though were those Joe Brolly used on Setanta Sports' The Hub, in trivialising the behaviour as well as the appeals of both teams. It gave an insight into how even the modern small man in football has become so desensitised to the indiscipline that has forced thousands of other ball-playing forwards, from Martin O'Neill and Jimmy Barry-Murphy to Brendan Devenney, to walk away from the game.

What can be done? Not enough football people watch enough other sport.

Especially the administrators. That must change. Given he'll hardly bring himself to London to find out how the FA runs its disciplinary business, Liam Mulvihill . . . whose annual mentions to Congress on discipline this past 25 years have been about as effective as the forests those of us in the media have devoted to the issue . . .

should go to New York.

There he'd meet David Stern who transformed the NBA from an ill-disciplined league into the most successful in world sport.

There Stern . . . a lawyer by trade . . . has commissioner status and the flexibility to make swift, just judgments.

If he can command such respect in as wealthy a league as the NBA and as litigious a society as the USA, why can't the GAA here?

Ultimately players shouldn't need to be told by a referee or the CDC or CAC when they've done wrong or right; it's knowing that very distinction which is the hallmark of a sportsperson. That's what been so depressing about Omagh, about the game in general for decades. Too much football isn't sport.