Extra-player debacle can prove watershed moment for GAA - former president Liam O'Neill

Former president of the GAA Liam O'Neill has called on the association to show more haste when resolving controversial situations in the aftermath of the 16th-man debacle.

O’Neill believes that the GAA should have acted a lot quicker to make a judgement call on the extra player controversy, which marred the All-Ireland club final clash between Kilmacud Crokes and Glen.

The Dublin club had an extra player on the pitch in the dying moments of the game as they defended a narrow lead, and a decision to award a replay was finally arrived at, nine days after the game took place - a further three days have now been assigned to Kilmacud should they wish to appeal the decision.

"We really have to make decisions quicker," said O'Neill, speaking on RTE Radio 1's Drivetime.

"I think this has dragged out for 10 days at this stage. We always thought there was a good chance there would be a replay but we have to examine our procedures to see if we can speed up, make decision and let people get on with their lives.

"We have a bad history of being slip-shod. We had a situation where substitutes were really handled well, but we let that slide. We have to look at our procedures too and hold our hand up and say 'we should have protocols of how people come on and off the field'.

"And we should be in charge and we need to look at that and get back to following our own rules.

"We are not consistent about implementing the rules and implementing them consistently over the years and if we had done that this time, this might not have exploded the way it did."

And O’Neill believes that this could be a watershed moment within the association, which could ensure that similar situations will not happen in the future.

"I don’t think any of us want to go through