John Fogarty: Honour among thieves hurts hurling

The arguments against plans to curb cynicism are being met with the same fears as the introduction of the yellow sliotar

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Rumours of hurling’s demise in the wake of the yellow sliotar’s introduction last October were greatly exaggerated.

As if they might somehow mistake the luminosity of the ball for the sun, hurlers queued up to shoot it down.

“I don’t understand why we’re playing with yellow sliotars, to be straight up about it,” said Joe Canning, who across four Championship games would later score 49 points with the fluorescent sliotars including 30 frees and seven sideline cuts.

A shocked Brendan Maher questioned the need for it: “We’d been playing games under lights in the league for years with normal sliotars and there has never been an issue, so timing wise maybe it’s up for debate.”

Aside from those two stars, Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy, Limerick manager John Kiely, and Waterford’s three-time All-Star Noel Connors all expressed opposition to it.

But as it turned down, the sky didn’t fall. In fact, it was considered such a success in the Championship that the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) recently took the decision to implement it as the standard colour ball across all levels from now on.

This was one of those occasions when hurling’s main stakeholders didn’t know what was right for itself and its cliqueness and reluctance to change threatened to get in the way. The arguments against plans to curb cynicism are being met with the same fears. 

Patrick Horgan has been on the end of professional fouls in his time and wasn’t his team-mate Shane Kingston the victim of such a foul when Dublin defender Paddy Smyth hauled him down as a goal looked on in November’s All-Ireland qualifier?

But no, he’s not for a new rule.

“I could sit here as a forward and say: ‘Oh yeah, if I get pulled down, the player should be sent off’ or whatever but then your own team are probably going to end up doing that at some stage of the year as well. It comes around to everyone and that’s just the game.”

What goes around, comes around — you won’t get much more philosophical sportsmen than hurlers. But we liken it to honour among thieves. 

On the same day Horgan spoke to the media last week, GAA president Liam O’Neill admitted the “live by the sword, die by the sword” attitude was part of the reason why hurling’s attitude to cynicism has been sketchy going back 12 years.

There is a slight ignorance of the facts too. Criticising the yellow sliotar last October, Kilkenny netminder Murphy described those used in the Super 11s as being like rocks, which were experimental prototypes whereas those used in the Championship were simply fluorescent versions of the main official suppliers. 

Last week, Limerick’s William O’Donoghue raised some valid points about the workability of the sin bin but like Horgan also spoke of the black card when in fact that’s not being proposed.

Admittedly, that is in fact a trick of the light, a means of distancing the last cynical motion that applied to hurling last year which called for the black card and was rejected by 82% of Congress delegates. 

According to the motion put forward by the standing playing rules committee, a yellow card combined with the referee informing the player he is being sin-binned is recommended if the foul has denied a goal-scoring opportunity.

As Kilkenny Central Council delegate and CCCC chairman Ned Quinn highlighted last week, the wording of the motion as it stands requires some surgery. 

An abridged version reads: “If a team is denied a goal-scoring opportunity, arising from an aggressive infraction committed either inside or outside the large rectangle, the following penalties shall apply — (i) A penalty puck shall be awarded to the team affected. (ii) If the infraction is (a) to pull down an opponent (5.1) or (b) to trip an opponent with hands, arm, leg, foot or hurley (5.2) or (c) to use the hurley in a careless manner (5.6), additional to being issued a caution (yellow card), the offender shall be sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes.”

It certainly need tidying up but that doesn’t mean the principle is also in question. Hurling men don’t come much greater than Quinn and Tipperary’s John Costigan and they realise the need for change. But those at the coalface of the game appear blinded with soot.

Twelve months ago, John “Bubbles” O’Dwyer was asked about the black card and the consequential 10-minute sin bin: “If a corner-back is pulling and tearing out of you, what do you expect, what are you going to do? They are not going to let you run through.”

When the poachers are siding with the gamekeepers, there is something amiss.

Writing on the wall for Cork and Down?

Don’t doubt for a second that Frank Murphy’s counsel has been sought regarding the proposed suspension of Ronan McCarthy.

New Cork still leans on Old Cork as do several counties who find themselves on a sticky wicket.

Croke Park appeared to anticipate that would be the case and duly appointed a crack sub-committee to investigate and hand down the motions. The cases against Cork and Down would appear to be open and shut, although face can be saved on both sides if after contesting the bans they are reduced to eight weeks. That way, the GAA will be seen as having dished out punishment while showing some clemency and making matters less personal.

But was the writing on the wall already for both counties before the body issued its sanctions to them?

“It’s the most disappointing thing I’ve seen in nearly 20 years of administration,” the GAA’s director of club, player and games administration Feargal McGill told The Irish Times on Jan 19, two weeks before the counties were notified of the proposed penalties.

“It shows us the governance challenges we face in the future trying to give players a better deal.

“We’re looking at meaningful close seasons and split seasons but if people can’t follow these guidelines about limiting activities in the face of a pandemic in order to protect their own players and communities, it shows the difficulties we can expect in securing compliance in a normal year.”

The GAA’s record of asking counties to do what they say, not do as they do is well known. And if it goes that far, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) may be told the die was already cast against Cork and Down before they could explain themselves.

Four predictions for 2021 season

The tarot cards are on the table and in what could be a regrettable exercise here’s what we are predicting for the GAA season ahead:

• Joe Canning will break Henry Shefflin’s all-time Championship scoring record. Right now, the Galway star is 14 points (27-474) behind the Kilkenny great (28-485), Patrick Horgan is next best on 23-428. Canning’s average is better than Shefflin’s too at 9.3 points per game compared to eight.
• Speaking of Horgan, Cork won’t be allowed push the blame button this year but will be among the last four teams standing in the Championship. The abundance of youth coming into the panel this season can’t be a mitigating factor when no other county does ready-made players like Cork. And unlike last year Cork won’t be able to cite a lengthy club championship as a reason for their performances as Horgan appeared to do last week when speaking about 2020.
• Kerry won’t be touched in Munster. Yeah, we’re really going out on a limb with this one but this is the short odds cert to buttress this accumulator of ours. Paul Murphy spoke of the pain in the group last week and we already detect hope in Cork and Tipperary that they draw each other in a semi-final and don’t find themselves on the Kingdom’s side of the draw.
• Stephen Cluxton won’t be retiring. Turning 40 in September, the Dublin captain has shown no signs of slowing down after a clean sheet Championship last year. He remains at the top of his game and looks as evergreen as Tom Brady.

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