An under-14 game in Offaly: three kids are sent off and parents and mentors come close to blows on the sideline.

An underage game in Sligo: this time the parents go a little further, but when tempers cool and bans loom all is forgotten.

An intermediate game in Kildare: as one side gloats after eliminating the other, the two decide to beat each other to a pulp.

A senior game in Carlow: a dressing room is torn asunder after championship heartbreak.

On and on until the catalogue is crammed with acts of violence and ill discipline. It's the way things are . . . a late pull here, a sly dig there.

Like it or not, the worst is waiting to happen and sometimes it does.

The thing about this is, this behaviour is a minority according to many. Ask Galway football chairman Frank Burke about violence in his county and he sounds stunned. "Are you serious? Sure that sort of thing wouldn't go on here." Ask other officials up and down the country and you'll get a similar understandable defensive response to your invasive question.

Ask Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue, and at least he acknowledges the problem.

"There's no denying it, " he says. "There have been some incidents of note and I would never condone or accept violence in any sport.

And in fairness there have been a number of life bans handed down which shows that the GAA are getting tough with this. When people see that happening as well, it deters them from committing any such acts."

All too often though, it seems the perpetrators can commit the offence and walk free soon after. That's the crux of the problem.

There's an inherent lack of faith in the discipline system as it currently stands and while that exists, melees and free for alls will remain part of the game and part of the culture.

It's not just players and mentors that are depressed with how things operate these days. Increasingly, officials are feeling their pain. The recent propensity to appeal whatever suspension is handed down by the authorities means those who originally dish out the punishment are questioned and often bypassed. A suspension is no longer a suspension until it has gone through the washing machine procedure of appeals.

Paraic Duffy served as GAC chairman under Sean McCague's recent tenure as association President, a term which saw a noticeable effort to tackle indiscipline within the GAA. The consensus at the time was that the letter of the law would be applied, but because of the GAA's structure, 100% accountability is never a given.

"There's a certain frustration among people involved in the GAA at official level, " he says. "These days it's accepted to challenge authority and when counties do make a decision to impose penalties, they never seem to have the last word. Unless you dot every 'i' and cross every 't' your decision is open to interpretation. Go back to the Dublin-Tyrone game in the league this year. In fairness to the disciplinary committee they tried very hard to take action and yet they found that when the cases went to the appeals bodies, the penalties weren't upheld for technical reasons and so on. We have a problem in that regard and while that's there, players and mentors will push things. Apply the rules and make sure players pay the penalties . . . that's the only way to improve things."

Duffy points out that things are at least moving in the right direction. Earlier this month the GAA published a 74-page document The Disciplinary Handbook, which he describes as an "idiot's guide to discipline". From the start of 2007 disciplinary bodies will no longer have an excuse not to apply the rules as they stand. It's a tangible effort to ensure consistency in the application of discipline but this will only work if those in power are willing to apply and enforce penalties and procedures.

"In general, the rules and procedures are stuck to, but from time to time we're let down by weak officials who turn a blind eye and they left people get off too easy. That's what leads to the disillusionment and the headlines.

That's what brings everybody down."

While those anaemic officials still linger, footballers like Stephen O'Sullivan in Kerry and hurlers like David Reidy in Clare will continue to suffer the consequences and all out fighting will remain ingrained in the games.

Duffy recalls one publicised occasion when McCague travelled to Derry to let the county board know they hadn't applied the rules properly. He made similar visits to other counties. "A president can't keep doing that on an ongoing basis. It's just not possible.

You have to be able to rely on each county to have the strength to apply the rules."

Application of the rules aside, there are other reasons behind the violent outbreaks we're seeing with each passing weekend.

Negative attitudes have always prevailed in Gaelic dressing rooms. Players have always been physically targeted, but the petty element, the niggly, off the ball incidents are now corkscrewed around the neck of football and hurling. Peter Canavan's last act in Croke Park was to physically hold Colm Cooper on the ground in the last seconds of the 2005 All Ireland final to prevent Cooper finding possession. This wasn't the passing of the baton from one great forward to the next that we expected. So, are we going to stand for that gloomy, repugnant image? It's become win at all costs and provocation and negativity are now legitimate tactics.

This year's drawn Munster Football Final provides a perfect case study. The ball is out of play. Paul Galvin and Kieran Donaghy attempt to raise the dander of Anthony Lynch.

It works. Lynch wrongly reacts and throws an elbow at Donaghy. He's sent off. Later, Donaghy also sees red for a fairly innocent incident. Both teams have 14 players. The referee has crunched the numbers. Both Lynch and Donaghy should miss the replay but because of Cork's attention to detail and their uncanny ability to find the uncrossed 't' and undotted 'i', Lynch is cleared to take part in the replay. Suspension lifted. Provocation, reaction and a failure to uphold the rules all in one little cameo. There are numerous similar incidents.

But other sports in this country don't stand for the violence and obvious lack of respect players have for one another and for referees in Gaelic games. Can anybody imagine Ronan O'Gara pinning Brian O'Driscoll to the ground in the closing stages of a Munster-Leinster encounter?

"Respect was one of the things I learned when I first started playing rugby, " says Mick Galwey, who turned his attentions to the oval ball having played football at inter-county level. "I saw immediately that there was great respect for the referee and coming from a football background it was kind of a new thing. If you give lip, it's an automatic 10 yards and no question about it. In rugby you're not even allowed talk to the referee. That's done through your captain or a nominated spokesperson and it means the referee is in control at all times. I'm not saying there aren't incidents in rugby but you'd never really see a free for all any more, where you might in GAA."

That idea of respect in rugby is entwined in the psyche of each player from the day they first handle a ball. It's there among those who attend underage games, too. That's still an alien concept to the average underage supporter and mentor in Gaelic games.

"Each of the kids, when they join say, Shannon or any other club, they're given a code of ethics, " Galwey continues. "It talks about discipline and respect for opponents. Parents are invited to clap the opposition team. Parents can't stand on the sideline and abuse the referee and there's no talk back to the referee on the field either. I've seen under-10s address the referee and it's "yes sir, no sir." It sets out the discipline straight away and it works."

We're different in the GAA though. Respect isn't a word we're yet familiar with. For us, the code of the blind eye and the fast fist still rules. As we've all seen over the weeks of this and every other year.