Advantage rule is merely a hindrance
Sadly, hurling will have to live on with it for another season. It is a canon in the playing rules of Gaelic games that is outdated to the point that it now embarrasses referees on a regular basis because it asks them to guess.
But what can they do? Once indicating advantage, they have no option to call the play back, instead pray their willingness to let the game flow provides the fouled player and his team with something better or equal to the value of a free. It’s a preposterous position to be put in yet referees are applauded for allowing as much. From January 1 next, football refs will have a window of five seconds to see if there is any reward to the fouled player or his team before issuing a free, one of the most sensible playing rule changes in years.
Hurling, though, will suffer on, and to its detriment. When a placed ball can now be scored from almost anywhere inside an opponent’s half, what is the point waving advantage unless a goal opportunity is on? James McGrath came in for stick in last year’s All-Ireland final replay when he blew for a Galway free just before Cyril Donnellan found the Kilkenny net.
Notwithstanding Saturday’s game between Waterford and Offaly, McGrath is a good referee and provided Galway with a free in a scoreable position, a most suitable reward for them and punishment for Kilkenny. How did he know Donnellan was going to find the net? In the Ulster SFC quarter-final between Cavan and Armagh, Maurice Deegan shipped criticism from Jamie Clarke for not allowing him advantage for his disallowed goal. The difference between the resultant free and goal was two points but asking Deegan to predict Clarke would raise a green flag? Too much.
In the final stages of Sunday’s Leinster semi-final and the game in the melting pot, Johnny Ryan signalled advantage to Kilkenny when a Dublin defender had infringed around the 40-metre line. A free would have been the greatest gain for them in those circumstances.
We watched for Brian Cody’s reaction on the sideline as Ryan held up his hand; he didn’t react. Why? His team lives more than dies by the game being let flow. For example, Dónal Óg Cusack on The Sunday Game highlighted the bit of devilment on Richie Power’s part in holding Peter Kelly for Walter Walsh’s goal. The former Cork goalkeeper has campaigned strongly on the illegitimate use of “the spare hand” and there’s a similar dark art in football except it’s the “busy hand” of opponents in possession which defending players are targeting, be it a little check here or a small stunt there. That was there for all to see in Breffni Park on Sunday and these are acts of cynicism which won’t be dealt with by the black card next year.
Such infringements, deemed innocuous by some, have led to the ridiculous phrase “half foul” being coined in both codes. There is only one kind of foul and it must be punished if the game is to be marshalled on a consistent basis.
John Bannon of this parish has strenuously argued managers and players would prefer to be given the free rather than advantage. Right now, a manager in hurling but especially in football would be better served asking a ref prior to throw-in not to give his team any benefit of the idea that they might attain more from anything other than a free. It might be beyond their remit but it’s not an outrageous request, more a plea for fair play because there is rarely nothing to be gained from playing on. Not only that, it would be a crafty measure in sewing a seed into the referee’s head that your team is going to be fouled and often.
Politics aside, in games where there is rarely good advantage it’s best take what you’re entitled to.
There’s a scene in the movie 300 when the Spartan king Leonidas fires a spear at the Persian “God-King” Xerxes and cuts his cheek, debunking the belief he was invincible.
On Sunday, we may have just seen a mortality exposed in the reigning All-Ireland champions.
In 2004, Kilkenny played three games in 15 days to advance to an All-Ireland final but back then their resources were much deeper than what Brian Cody has now as he deals with injuries to vital players.
Unless Dublin and themselves can’t be separated after extra-time in Saturday’s replay, the Cats have Galway or Tipperary the following weekend. To win a Leinster title is a considerable ask even of a team with considerable capability.
Donegal, as Tony McEntee articulately explained in his column here yesterday, don’t look as infallible as they did last year although Karl Lacey’s availability for the Ulster final is of monumental importance to them. They can’t afford to pick up further injuries but it’s easier said than done. Even in stalemate and defeat, Dublin and Down will be thanked for revealing potentially fatal flaws in the kingpins.
No Munster hurling semi-finals on RTÉ, no Leinster SHC semi-finals on TV at all ... the game of hurling could be asking itself on exactly whose chips they relieved themselves?
With most of the better provincial football games coming before the finals, the broadcasters have had to sacrifice some of their hurling coverage and yet what is routinely the better game to watch?
The hurling championship has been highly entertaining if only registering in the middle of the quality scale but a lot of it has so far been viewed in truncated highlight packages.
However, when the Munster and Leinster semi-finals clash and hurling people in the Gaelic Grounds and O’Moore Park are resigned to splitting their senses, eyes on the game in front of them and ears on what’s happening somewhere on the M8, what does it say about the GAA’s attitude to the game?
The Munster and Leinster Council are separate entities but there doesn’t seem to be a reflection of the fact a supporter of a hurling county is also a fan of the game, more so than a football one anyway.
