Former GAA president Liam O'Neill calls on GAA to 'tidy up its act' after brawl

Former GAA president Liam O'Neill admits there is decreasing confidence in its ability to deal with indiscipline and said it must "tidy up its act".

Sunday's thrilling All-Ireland quarter-final between Armagh and Galway was overshadowed by a mass brawl as the players headed to the dressing rooms at the end of normal time.

Galway forward Damien Comer suffered an apparent eye-gouge during the melee.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, O’Neill said there should be limits on the number of persons on the sideline during matches, and that only management and on-field players should be allowed into the dressing rooms.

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"We had an absolutely fantastic game in Croke Park, everything you want in Gaelic Games, yet we’re talking about violence and that is a huge pity," said O’Neill, who served as GAA president between 2012 and 2015.

"In my time as president I made a huge effort to clear the sidelines down to one manager and one runner. That’s more than enough. We really have to get to grips with this situation.

"We had a situation in Croke Park on Sunday where we had excellent dressing rooms on both sides of the field. We could have used one for either team and avoided this.

"People say it’s the same around the country. It’s not. In Portlaoise we have two dressing rooms and the players come out of either end of the same stand. There’s never a difficulty. Admittedly it was a response to a situation that developed but we solved it and Croke Park really have to get to grips with