‘Hawk-Eye’ set for GAA club finals
The company’s operations director Steve Carter confirmed Hawkins had flown to Dublin with a view to setting up the technology in time to showcase and possibly use for the club finals on March 17.
“We’ve sent Paul Hawkins over to Ireland and he’s carrying out a reccie of Croke Park to make sure that when all the equipment goes in there everything will work when we eventually turn up to install,” said Carter yesterday.
“As I understand it, the plan is to install the systems in Croke Park for a period of about three weeks while we test the systems, fine-tune them and make sure it will meet the unique demands that Gaelic games — especially hurling — places upon our technology.
The GAA’s management committee last month gave the go-ahead to Hawk-Eye to undertake a feasibility study into the technology being used for score detection in the All-Ireland senior football and hurling championships.
Carter acknowledges that hurling — as a quicker game and played with a smaller ball than Gaelic football — is more of a challenge for the Hawk-Eye systems.
However, he is extremely confident the technology’s success in tennis will ensure a smooth transition into hurling when it is experimented in two months’ time.
“Before we were approached, we weren’t familiar with Gaelic games but have since become big fans of the sport,” he said.
“The speed of hurling is incredible and we really have taken the games to heart.
“Providing technology for hurling, though, and the sliotar is actually not that difficult for us as there are many crossovers with our tennis system.”
Concerns have been raised about the cost of running Hawk-Eye in championship matches.
However, sponsorship in other sports have offset the finances required, such as Rolex at Wimbledon and Specsavers in English cricket where the respective sports organisations gave Hawk-Eye commercial rights on big screens.
The GAA have been given assurances the operation could be provided on a cost neutral basis.
“In the fullness of time and once people have bought into it, sponsors see Hawk-Eye as an opportunity,” said Carter. “The example of Rolex at Wimbledon is a good one as they are paying far more than what the cost of the system to operate.”
Carter has also attempted to assuage the concerns of GAA officials who may feel Hawk-Eye’s possible introduction into top-flight Gaelic games is a bad reflection on their adjudicating skills.
“Before our technology was used in cricket and tennis, a lot of the people in distinguishing scores saw us a bit of a threat but the way its evolved we’re part of the umpiring team.
“We go out for drinks with them afterwards and people appreciate we’re there to make their jobs easier, not take their jobs off them. We hope to evolve the same relationships with the umpires in the GAA.”
Carter has been impressed with how keen the GAA, via their research committee headed up by director of games development Pat Daly, have been to run their games in a more professional and transparent manner.
“The GAA has certainly shown more foresight than other sports in how they want to improve their games,” he said. “For example, in cricket it took a long time for the authorities to embrace technology because it was such a traditional sport.”
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