Central Council ready to give green light to ‘smart’ sliotar new year trials

THE proposed new luminous yellow ‘smart’ sliotar which will be used in next year’s hurling Championships will eventually have the capacity to prevent goal line controversies and could pave the way for score detection technology in all major GAA grounds.

Pending approval at Central Council next month, the new sliotar will come into play for next year’s Leinster and Munster SHC as well as the Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups.

However, the next phase of the sliotar’s development with Greenfields Digital Sports Technology, who have been working on this innovation with the GAA for the past eight years, will incorporate the capacity for score detection.

The use of such equipment remains extremely limited in Gaelic games. The Hawkeye system utilised by the GAA is installed at just two venues – Croke Park and Semple Stadium.

Issues over price have prevented the GAA introducing Hawkeye elsewhere, with the system also costing roughly €8,000 per match to operate after installation costs.

In its current guise, Hawkeyecan only adjudicate on whether a point has been scored as programming the system for goal-line monitoring requires a different set of algorithms, entailing additional expense.

During last year’s Munster SHC Round 3 clash between Waterford and Tipperary, Austin Gleeson caught a dropping ball hit by Jason Forde just before his own goal line.

Replays confirmed that Gleeson had comfortably prevented the ball from crossing the line yet referee Alan Kelly awarded a goal to Tipperary on the advice of one of his umpires.

The match finished in a draw.

It is envisaged that the new sliotar could generate data showing whether it broke invisible magnetic fields projected on goal lines and above uprights, making a quick and accurate reading as to whether a goal or point has been scored.

The expected cost of erecting these boundaries is understood to be affordable enough that it could conceivably be installed in every inter-county ground in the country.

This new technology will also provide for the ability to chart a sliotar’s movements and changes of direction, offering a potential solution to controversies like the one in the final minutes of this year’s All-Ireland semi-final between Limerick and Kilkenny.

With the defending All-Ireland champions trailing by a point, they were denied a ’65 after Cillian Buckley deflected a Darragh O’Donovan sideline ball wide, yet a Kilkenny puck-out was awarded.