New rules come into play for upcoming county hurling championships

COUNTY Referees Administrator Michael Nee believes the new rules implemented in hurling – particularly the advantage rule and one-on-one penalty – will enhance the quality of fare in the forthcoming Galway senior and intermediate hurling championships.

The new rules were initiated last weekend with those at the U-21 ‘B’ decider between Kilconieron and Killimordaly getting to observe the one-on-one penalty in use in the championship for the first time – victorious Kilconieron captain Shane Caulfield netting the placed ball in his side’s 2-13 to 2-10 win.

However, for many, the first time they will view the new rules in action will be in the first round of the senior and intermediate championships on the weekend of April 24-26, venues and times for which were announced earlier this week.

Nee says there were no major problems arising from the implementation of the new rules last weekend although he believes it would take time for the regulations, especially the five second advantage rule, to bed in.

Under this rule, the referee may allow the play to continue for up to five seconds after a foul and if no advantage accrues during that time, he may subsequently award a free puck for the foul. The same rule has been in place in football for the past year.

“So far, it has worked well in football but in hurling it will take a while to bed in,” he says. “We had all the hurling referees together on Friday night and the idea was to be careful. In other words, if there is a foul and you give the free, nobody can say you were wrong. That is a free for the foul. So, they will be careful about implementing the advantage rule until it is bedded in.

“As I said though, it bedded in fairly quickly in football so I would be confident it will work well there. I suppose, in hurling, it is slightly different in that you could give advantage to someone in the corner back position and he could land the ball in the far 21 . . . and you might still have to call it back. It probably won’t be used as much in hurling.”

That said, he thinks the new rules will add to the quality of hurling in the senior and intermediate championships. “When you had all the proposals being drawn up towards the end of last year, you would be naturally looking at the later games in the championship and seeing [incidents where] if the advantage rule was there it would have been great.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.