Hurling needs to wrestle with its conscience
Football is in a healthy place right now The goal rate in hurling is going down The game must face up to cynicism
WITH Oscar season around the corner, Kevin Walsh must have decided to channel his inner Richard Pryor when asked for his take on the shenanigans that unfolded in an unseemly endgame between Mayo and Galway at Pearse Stadium.
In what could have been an outtake from See No Evil, Hear No
Evil, all the Galway manager was missing was a cane for a prop in delivering his lines.
‘Whether there were handbags or not I don’t know. I didn’t see any of it,’ said Walsh.
He must have been the only one in the crowd of 9,850 hardy souls, who braved the arctic elements, to miss a fractious finale get out of hand from the 66th minute with Galway leading 1-12 to 0-9.
It started with a bit of rub and tickle between full-back Seán Andy Ó Ceallaigh and Mayo totem Aidan O’Shea. As the pair wrestled with each other and O’Shea hit the ground, both sets of players took it as a chance to settle some scores, rushing in from all angles to engage in a rolling maul of pushing, jostling and grabbing jerseys by the neck, the modern player is clever enough to know how to provoke a strike but not to strike himself.
On and on it rumbled as referee Anthony Nolan tried to bring order, the fracas involved more farce than fury as a prone O’Shea was grabbed at one stage by the back of his jersey by Galway midfielder Paul Conroy and hauled along on his backside for about five yards to the delight of the partisan home support. That three Galway players were booked — Conroy, Ó Ceallaigh, and Cathal Sweeney — compared to Mayo’s one in the form of O’Shea, perhaps says something about how Galway want to lay down a marker ahead of the May 13 Connacht Championship quarter-final and how Mayo’s All-Star is a clearly identifiable target.
Mayo runner Tony McEntee even found himself caught up in the maelstrom, man-handled unceremoniously out of the way as a second flashpoint broke out.
In a week when it we learned that a motion to define a melee is being brought to Congress, it felt like a test case.
One website previously set about ranking the severity of GAA fights in ascending order in tongue-incheek fashion: Handbags, Shemozzle, Fracas, Melee, Shameful Scenes. In an ironic twist, Walsh actually used that old favourite ‘handbags’ to hide behind even when opposite number Stephen Rochford was giving an honest assessment of it all.
The Mayo boss admitted ‘we lost our discipline’ and insisted he had no complaints with the straight red card issued to Cillian O’Connor for his hit on cornerback Eoghan Kerin — the only real bad blow delivered — or the dismissal of younger brother Diarmuid on a second yellow for a high challenge on the same player barely 60 seconds later.
The thing is, while the match video will no doubt be pored over by the association’s disciplinary arm, Gaelic football doesn’t need another bout of navel-gazing. Overall, the game is currently in a very healthy place judging by the early rounds of the Allianz League.
A staggering 80 goals were scored in the opening two rounds, almost twice the figure for 2017. Encompassing 32 matches, that’s an average of 2.5 goals per game. Four postponements means the full picture for round three has yet to emerge, though the results suggest a natural dip.
The ugly endgame at Pearse Stadium was out of keeping with the previous rancour-free hour that produced plenty of honest endeavour lit up by Damien Comer’s rampaging presence, Shane Walsh’s ability to glide over a sticky pitch, Conroy’s all-round skillset and the free-running of Éamonn Brannigan.
At Croke Park, Dublin’s capacity to weave pretty patterns as if the pilot in Jim Gavin has reimagined a Red Arrows display on a football field, continued to dazzle. We also saw Ryan McHugh making every strength and conditioning coach fear for their future by showing that the best goods come in small parcels, ably abetted by Donegal’s emerging young brood of stars such as Stephen McBrearty and Eoghan ‘Ban’ Gallagher.
Every division of the League produced nail-biting drama.
Mattie Donnelly curled a sublime winner in Newbridge. Cian O’Dea made a diving block to secure a draw for Clare. Ethan Rafferty smuggled home the winning goal for Armagh at Pearse Park. London continued to defy spring tradition by pick-pocketing a late goal at Ruislip against Limerick and claimed a cherished point.
Late scores, late goals aplenty, as the black card and advantage rule played their own part.
Meanwhile, the most blatant acts of cynicism on view at the weekend were confined to a hurling field.
Na Piarsaigh deserve all the plaudits for the gutsy nature of their 13-man victory over Slaughtneil at Parnell Park, Shane Dowling’s wristy double to the net was a joy to behold. But two other moments jarred and said everything about how the game needs to face up to a very modern problem: deliberate fouling to deprive a goal-scoring opportunity.
With no black card in hurling, the practice is rife.
The Munster champions struggled to contain Brendan Rogers all afternoon
And as he ran in on goal in the first half, full-back Mike Casey grabbed him around the waist in a tackle Ireland rugby coach Joe Schmidt would be proud of. With the one-on-one penalty stats proving that the goalkeeper has a fair chance of making a save, the defender knew exactly what he was doing.
To deliberately haul down an opposition player in hurling when one hand is holding a stick takes a knowing level of cynicism.
Late in the second half, as Slaughtneil chased the game, Rogers again took the shortest route for goal only to be hauled down a second time, with cornerback Niall Buckley the offender in this case. It resulted in another yellow card but a goal threat was averted. The most obvious proof that it pays to foul. For the record, Casey went on to hurl heroically in that second half.
Unlike football, the goal rate in hurling is going down.
Since the new six-team format for Division 1A was introduced in 2012, the goal rate in the group stage has fluctuated from a peak of 45 goals in 2014 to just 29 in 2016, the first year it dipped below 30. In 2017, it just about hit the 30 mark.
After two rounds in 2018, it’s averaging much lower at just a goal a game. If the rates continue in this manner, the final figure will be down to 25.
The earlier League start with colder conditions and heavier pitches is one factor; others include advanced defensive setups and a lighter sliotar that makes point-taking from distance so easy.
The lack of a just punishment for blatant cynical play is another.
The solution is simple: introduce a black card in very prescribed circumstances: solely for a deliberate pull-down anywhere inside the defending team’s 45 metre-line. It’s time for the game’s advocates to have a proper conversation about the introduction of a black card.
It’s hurling — not football — that needs to wrestle with its conscience right now.