MICHAEL DUIGNAN
Cool the jets on cards
‘FOULING IN HURLING IS HARDLY A MODERN TREND’
LET’S start with an ugly truth: foul play is part of sport. Some of it is deliberate and cynical, some of it isn’t. It’s not sporting but it’s part of the game. Of course there is cynicism in hurling. That much has to be stated.
But there is a reason why there is opposition to the motion being brought forward to the GAA’s Annual Congress to introduce a black card with its 10-minute sinbin – starting this summer.
Because of the speed of the game, there are so many accidental clashes. Hurling is a very spontaneous game. If we introduce the black card, we risk changing what makes hurling different.
Is such radical change needed? Fouling is hardly a modern phenomenon. I think back to an incident in the 1998 All-Ireland final which I had a clear view of on the pitch. Ken O’Shea got a run on Martin Hanamy who happened to catch him and pull him down.
The contact with the helmet would make it an automatic red going by today’s rules. Kilkenny got a penalty; Hanamy got a yellow card. DJ Carey was one of the kings of the penalty at the time. Back then, three players were allowed on the line and he put it over the bar.
It wasn’t a last-minute scenario but I always felt if they got the goal then they could well have kicked on. Instead, Offaly won our last All-Ireland.
If DJ had buried it, it would have been the ultimate penalty for us. So the rules are there.
Is cynical fouling becoming more and more part of the game? I guess that’s what is sparking this entire conversation. Back then, I would have said it never came in to any coaching session. I’m not so sure I can say the same now. Players know how to snuff out the danger.
But I don’t think the black card is the answer.
Take the endgame of an All-Ireland final. Will a player just take the black card if it deprives a crucial goal-scoring opportunity? Quite likely. Especially if it’s outside the 20-metre line and away from goal, so no penalty is awarded.
Look at what happened in the final moments of the club final. Brendan Maher took the ball on for Borris-Ileigh and was fouled. The subsequent free, from outside the 20-metre line at an angle was saved. Ballyhale Shamrocks won by a goal.
A black card isn’t going to change anything there.
Should an automatic penalty be awarded instead?
That’s one possible alternative – where the referee believes there is a deliberate and cynical foul to deprive a goal-scoring opportunity. We could take the lead from soccer in that respect and leave it at the discretion of a referee.
Let him decide if a penalty is to be awarded. It could be introduced purely for a player who is deliberately denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity, if he is pulled to the ground or tripped or deliberately fouled to prevent the chance of a green flag being raised.
It’s not about awarding penalties for cynical fouls away from the goals. That isn’t where any problem exists in hurling right now. It has to relate to a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Where referees could struggle is the consistent application of the rule. But they struggle there anyway.
The most frustrating thing I see is the rules, as they are now, being applied differently by different referees.
To be honest, I don’t think the black card and 10-minute sin bin is working in football. In principle, the sanction is fine. But from what I’m seeing, it is leading to more cheating than before. Players are finding different ways to knock time off the clock and eat into that 10 minutes.
It only encourages more crowding in defence, too, if teams are down a man.
Cork are supporting the black card ahead of Congress; Kilkenny are against. You can probably tell a lot about the counties’ mentalities right there.
As pointed out from early last summer, I felt in the first half of games, that Tipperary were deliberately fouling. The kind of tactical fouling that has been levelled at Manchester City in soccer.
The ambition is to stop a goal chance developing early on. Tipperary didn’t seem too worried about the free count in that period – or how many Cork’s Patrick Horgan was going to convert in the Munster SHC first round.
The regularity in which they took the free as punishment made it look like a pre-planned strategy. The policy was no goals conceded early on by disrupting the opposition’s rhythm.
Even though they knew the frees were going to be scored, they were confident of having the firepower up front to more than match.
And then they would tighten up in the second half, keep their shape and discipline and look to kick on.
The All-Ireland final wasn’t that much different.
Over the first couple of rounds of the League, there is evidence that there is more cynical fouling taking place, particularly when it comes to a goal-scoring opportunity.
Overall though, we have a brilliant product. There’s criticism that ‘hurling men’ don’t want to see change. Or just want to see the good in the game. Well I’m proud to stand up for the game I love. To be one of them.
Maybe it’s time to cool the jets a bit and enforce the rules we have.
Ultimately, you can’t fix everything by rule. Fix attitudes when the stakes are so high. Things happen on the spur of the moment. Hurling is so spontaneous. I’d be afraid of the knock-on effects.
No game is perfect.