A GAA MOTION to introduce lettered jerseys in the case of blood substitutions has been heavily defeated at today’s Congress in Croke Park.

Currently if players suffer a blood injury and leave the pitch, they must wear a new replacement jersey when coming back onto the pitch. This jersey generally has the same number they have been wearing or a number higher than 26.

The new motion sought to ensure players would wear letters on the back of their jerseys in such scenarios.

But it was comprehensively defeated with 70.2% of delegates voting against while 29.8% of delegates voted for the motion. Cork’s Tracey Kennedy and Galway’s Noel Treacy spoke passionately against the motion.

The full wording of the motion read:

“To assist the Referee in ensuring that no player shall wear a jersey with a number over the maximum number specified in Rule, and where a replacement jersey is required for a player who is returning to the field of play following treatment for a ‘Blood Injury’, that it shall bear his original number or be identified alphabetically –
A, B,C, D, E etc.”

Clock-hooter system voted in for 2014 GAA senior inter-county championship games

5 talking points ahead of this weekend’s hurling action