But to be fair, the Galway hurling board are carrying out a full investigation at the moment and I expect it will be thorough and get to the root of the problem and deal with it adequately. That's an area where we have improved hugely as an organisation over the years and I think most of these incidents are dealt with and handled well.

Not that there are all that many of them. I'd never condone violence in any way but you have to take these things in context. Look at the amount of games that take place in hurling alone and look at the number of serious incidents at the end of it all. Very few, and that's a credit to a game that's almost universally safe and played in a very good spirit. You also have to look at specific incidents that are highlighted. There might be a headline or a photograph but that doesn't explain if something happened for a minute or a second or if it was more than that.

However, when you hear rumours about Joe Canning wanting to walk away, that's a worry. I'm not sure if the quotes about him playing rugby can be attributed to him but if it's true, it's worrying. I know Joe and I know the Cannings and they are a credit to their sport. They are wonderfully talented, skillful and fair. Joe has a huge future in front of him and I really hope he's not turned off by what happened. Nor do I hope anyone else is turned off the game although I don't think the latter is a worry. If you look at the facts and figures, the numbers playing hurling are up in recent years.

Then there's what happened with Miko Ryan. As chairman of the Galway hurling board he's in a voluntary position, giving up his own time. And to have members of his own family abused walking down the street, well that's just unbelievable. His daughters are trying to get on with their own business. They have nothing to do with this and the people who have done it should be ashamed and need to have a look at what they are doing.

But I'm very confident this will be dealt with and punishments will be handed out.

We've got a system in place to deal with this now, and from 1 January we've a new system agreed on. We'll be explaining it to all the relevant people and we won't see some of the high-profile cases of the summer, where players are getting away due to procedural errors. The new system is very detailed.

There have been a number of other suggestions in light of the Portumna-Loughrea match, such as bringing in referees from other counties to take charge of these highprofile games. I know in some places they've been doing it for a while and it's something I'd have no problem with whatsoever and in many ways I can see merit in the idea.

Players, managers and clubs have no past history with the referee in such circumstances and he can get on with the job without people knowing him.

With the week that's in it, and with us being in the middle of the International Rules Series, the idea of a second referee has been suggested. In fact it's been mooted around the place for quite some time.

I'd never say never and it's something that could happen, but at the minute I think you have to look at what's there and imagine there are enough eyes at a game to pick up all that goes on. Look at it. There are four umpires, two linesmen, a referee and a fourth official. That's eight people ruling over proceedings and before you start to talk about another referee, I think it's crucial that you make sure the people there are all tuned in. They have to be working together and on the same page and when that happens, there should be enough people in place to control matters.

But back to the Galway game. People might focus on the negative and the sensationalism and we are all guilty of that but if you honestly look at it compared to things in the past, the game is cleaner.

It's not as rough as when I was playing and it's improving all the time. We shouldn't let isolated incidents change that perception. Instead we should deal with them and that's what will happen in this case, as in every other.