We can't take any chance on clock/hooter, insists O'Neill

A report to Central Council last week from the GAA's Central Competition Controls Committee highlighted potential problems with the system after it was rolled out for a series of third-level games in March and again in November. The report, overseen by the GAA's director of games administration Fergal McGill, expressed concern about its implementation this summer.

O'Neill said the decision to bring a motion to delete the existing motion in place that calls for the clock/hooter to be introduced was "frustrating". "The difficulty is our game is technical and our games matter. People want things 100pc so we have no option," he said. "Most other sporting organisations around the world people can get things less than 100pc. We have to get things 100pc right and we are not going to take the chance.

"It's too important to the players not to get things right and if it takes a bit longer that's it. But the presentation was strong enough to overwhelmingly take this decision. You don't just go ahead and do something. It would be irresponsible to go ahead and do something which you know is not going to work."

O'Neill has also expressed satisfaction that the publication of three reports this month that he says will help to better streamline the current fixtures schedule at all levels.

The Hurling 2020 committee, the minor review committee and the fixtures work group have all presented their findings.

"A lot of the people analysing and commenting on what is happening with player welfare are identifying a problem we had acknowledged 18 months ago when we set up these committees. So it's easy to just lambaste us now but we've provided three solutions to it and the implementation of those three reports will go a long way to addressing all of the issues that have been raised."