GAA right not to intervene in 16th-man storm - director general Ryan

GAA director general Tom Ryan has hit back at suggestions the association's top brass should have intervened in the All-Ireland club football final '16th man' row.

The GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) has ordered a replay between the sides after a hearing into Kilmacud defending the final play of the game with 16 active players on the pitch.

The CCCC waited for beaten finalists Glen Watty Grahams to object to the result rather than launching their own inquiry, as was possible under rule 6.44, apparently to avoid setting a precedent.

That led to criticism of a lack of leadership from the GAA but Ryan insists that the independence of the CCCC had to be respected.

"I don't really think it helps matter too much if we dive in," he told RTÉ Sport.

"The worst thing we could possibly do is the GAA step in [because] there’s a deficit there, the GAA should intervene and direct something.

"I have never picked up [phone to] the chair on the CCCC, or anybody on the CCCC, to say, 'Derek [Kent, chairman], this is the way I want this to go'. I will not do that. Any suggestion implied or explicit that in some way we should have been directing something, that’s completely wrong. Completely inappropriate.

"To the extent that people don’t get that, that’s okay.

"The safest thing we can do is to abide by the process that is tried and trusted and it works. We have to be really careful not to intervene but to not undermine that process either."

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