The head of the Disciplinary Rules Taskforce has brushed aside overt criticism aimed in his direction by hurling managers. A number of intercounty bosses were scant in their praise of the trial regulations after last weekend's matches, but Liam O'Neill - the man responsible for the rules experiment - is refusing to bow to their protests: Responding largely to rebukes from Offaly manager Joe Dooley and his Galway counterpart John McIntyre, O'Neill rasped: "Just because one of McIntyre's players is shown a black card twice and sent off, I am not going to apologise. "I don't agree that there's more cynicism in football. I cringe when I see incidents like I saw in last year's Leinster final when two Kilkenny forwards tried to pull down a Wexford back. "There's enough physicality in hurling in the normal cut and thrust. We don't need the crash tackle or the arm or hurl around the neck. "There were three yellow cards in the Offaly-Galway game at the weekend - twice the average. Maybe both of these should think about that. "We don't owe anything to the non-skilful player who wants to go out and foul." Tweet

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