Clampdown on cynical fouls can lead to increase in hurling goals

Inside Track with John McIntyre

CAN we look forward to it raining goals in hurling matches from now onwards? Well, the basic hope is that spectators will see more green flags being raised in future after the weekend GAA Congress clamped down on cynical play in no uncertain manner.

Despite a belated intervention by the GPA (Gaelic Players Association), delegates voted in favour for the introduction of a black card and the awarding of a penalty for cynical fouls occurring inside the 20-metre line and the semi-circular arc. The rule will also apply to Gaelic football.

Through there is already a sin-bin in football, 2021 will be the first time that hurlers run the risk of being sent to the dug-out for a ten-minute period for cynical fouling. It’s a move which had far from unanimously approval as heavyweight hurling counties Limerick, Kilkenny and Galway all railed against the motion at Saturday’s virtual Congress.

There is little protest over the awarding of a penalty for what we could loosely describe as professional fouling when a goal-scoring opportunity is obvious. Remember, in last year’s championship, Kilkenny’s Huw Lawlor holding Niall Burke’s hurley in the Leinster final and Adrian Tuohey’s grounding of Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

Both incidents prevented the net from been rattled and, in those circumstances, the previous punishment of a close-range free simply didn’t fit the crime. Now, however, the question is being asked: have the GAA gone too far the other way? Most stakeholders would be content with the awarding of a penalty, but to also have the offending player ending up in the sin-bin for ten minutes is undoubtedly a harsh sanction.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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