THE GAA is set to review it's current disciplinary system at the end of the year following a meeting of Central Council at Croke Park yesterday. It was also decided that a code of conduct for players and officials will be established while any player, team official or county board official who makes derogatory comments in relation to games, officials or administrators would be punished.

The meeting was called by GAA president Nickey Brennan after claims there was a discipline problem within the organisation. However, Central Council yesterday denied this and said that proof was demonstrated by the fact that in 125 cases where suspensions were proposed, hearings were only requested in 15.

However, those at the meeting did insist there must be "a change of culture and mindset in terms of respect for authority, for games officials, rules, procedures and structures". The GAA plans to introduce a range of initiatives to educate members on the operation of the disciplinary system in the coming weeks.

Pressure had increased on the Kilkenny man to deal with the problem in recent weeks after a number of high-profile incidents hit the headlines.

In Kildare alone there have been three such incidents.

An 18-year-old Two Mile House player was suspended for 96 weeks after he allegedly head-butted a referee during a junior club match. The county also saw Castledermot and Maynooth thrown out of the junior football league after a melee forced the abandonment of a game.

Elsewhere, referee Mark Millhan walked away from a junior football league game at half-time citing continual abuse from a team official as the reason for not completing the job.

In Kerry, gardai are investigating an alleged assault that left a manager of Division Three side Clounacon with a suspected broken jaw, loosened teeth and swelling on the side of the face after he claimed he was attacked on the sideline by an opposition player near the end of a league semi-final. Meanwhile, in Meath, a B game was abandoned after violence broke out between St Patrick's, Stamullen and Dunsany that left the referee with no option but to walk off with more than 20 minutes to go.

In fact such is the violence at present that in these pages last week Tyrone manager Mickey Harte said he was reviewing the idea of letting his senior county players rejoin their clubs between games, a ploy that has helped the county's stars capture two All Irelands in recent seasons. Harte was forced to review his policy after Brian McGuigan returned after nearly a year away from the game to take a straight elbow and nearly lose the sight in one eye.

Congress also made reference to Rule 144 (e), introduced at the beginning of the year, that allows the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to re-examine certain discipline issues after a procedure involving the CCCC writing to a referee, sending a video of a particular incident and ascertaining whether the referee was satisfied with the action he took initially. Brennan himself made the mistake of saying this was not possible in relation to Graham Geraghty's antics during their drawn game against Dublin, something pointed out two weeks ago in the Sunday Tribune.

It also emerged yesterday that the Cork County Board had accepted proposals from the CCC in relation to venues for this year's hurling and football qualifiers. Cork had initially objected to the fact that games would be played in such a fashion, forwarding a letter to the CCC which argued for neutral venues on the basis that home and away venues were not specified in the relevant motion submitted to Congress.