John Fogarty: Thrown handpass a real hot potato issue before the Championship

Will referees continue to clamp down on the thrown hand-pass when the League is over?

Tue, 08 Mar, 2022 - 06:30

Listening to Dónal Óg Cusack’s concerns about the proliferation of the hand-pass last week, it was difficult not to think of Basil Fawlty’s infamous retort: “You started it.”

Cusack’s point specifically related to the thrown hand-pass, of course, and he is correct to say that it is a symptom of how the game has changed.

For Cusack’s Cork team, the hand-pass was the transfer of choice; now it is the shift of necessity. Bottled up as they often are amid the bodies between the 65-metre lines, players are compelled to get rid of the ball as quickly and controlled as possible. A throw simply offers more security than a striking action.

“If a player hasn’t anybody making physical contact with him, he has the time to make a clear striking action,” said John Kiely just over two years ago. “The player would only throw the ball if he was in a situation where he is under severe pressure and needed to throw the ball because he couldn’t get a striking action.”
Kiely was speaking after Limerick’s Division 1 game win over Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, where he had acknowledged there had been an emphasis put on the clear striking action in the hand-pass. By the time the pandemic-delayed championship came around, any clampdown was forgotten.

Events in the last couple of weeks will give rise to the belief there is a concerted effort to cut out the throw. On one hand, it’s encouraging that the referees picking up on it right now are the up and comers. Seán Stack, Paud O’Dwyer, Thomas Walsh, and Patrick Murphy didn’t always get it right but in their respective games they have helped to weed out some of it. It was noticeable, for example, that the second half in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday hardly featured a throw ball after Walsh had blown for several in the opening period.

On the other, how many of these referees are going to get the big games come the championship? The overturning of Cian Lynch’s red card in the Fitzgibbon Cup final and John McGrath’s in the Munster senior club semi-final will have been knocks for Johnny Murphy and Séan Cleere, possibly Fergal Horgan too, but hurling refereeing has a glass ceiling. Just three men have taken charge of the last four All-Ireland semi-finals and two finals.

And how often have we seen such attention paid to illegal hurling in the league only for a blind eye to be turned in the main event? Much of that has to do with the fact that referees, like players, are battling for championship starting places right now. The thrown hand-pass will have mentioned in meetings. If the developing match officials are seen to be listening to their administrators, they are going to be rewarded.

After making the cut, the pressure is off. Not that referees revert to their usual selves but much more pragmatism is adopted in the championship. We’re reminded of what Ryan O’Dwyer said about fellow west Tipperary man and the game’s leading referee Horgan nine years ago. “He read the rulebook once and then threw it away and used his common sense.”

There is undoubtedly a “fake it ‘til you make it” element to refereeing between the league and championship. It’s part of the reason why Kieran Kingston asked a legitimate question last week about there being consistency between the two competitions in the application of the rule. “This is one of the skills of the game, and there’s no doubt teams have used that to throw the ball around at times,” he said.

“Referees, I understand and we were told today that they’re clamping down on it and that’s great and it’s right that they should clamp down on it, but the challenge will be come championship – will they clamp down on it? So is it one rule for the league and another rule for the championship?”

Human nature will all but ensure that referees won’t follow through. They will want to contribute to the flow of the game. Frees go down in the championship not just because players are fitter but referees rely more on their discretion.

Former Tipperary full-back Conor O’Donovan’s endeavours to come up with a solution are well intentioned but the idea of the ball being struck from the non-holding hand is cumbersome and would require a juggling act of sliotar and ball, a ridiculous level of dexterity and synchronisation to complete a simple skill. Already, players are taking matters out of their own hands and engaging in the “Brick Flick”, the one-handed bat which former Waterford hurler Michael Walsh made famous.

The ugly truth is if the player isn’t blown for throwing the ball, he will be for holding onto it for too long. Is it any wonder it is regarded as the lesser of two evils? Literally and figuratively, it is a hot potato issue.

DON'T POKE PATRICK HORGAN

Wheeling away from scoring his first-half goal against Galway on Saturday night, Patrick Horgan held his finger to his lips. The gesture to shush wasn’t directed the way of supporters but clearly intended for somebody.

May it have been Anthony Daly of this parish? “You'd wonder what the long-term plan is with Patrick Horgan,” he wrote in last Saturday week’s column. “He didn't feature against Clare. Hoggie only came on at half-time against Offaly. Maybe Kieran (Kingston) only sees Hoggie as an impact player at this stage.”

He continued: “Nobody disputes Hoggie's greatness and class, but it looks like Kieran has begun the succession planning for whenever the Glen Rovers man does go, because that day isn't too far away.”

On a weekend when it was suggested Cork may have poked the Limerick bear, Horgan may have been himself prodded into delivering a fine starting performance for his county the following Saturday.

Daly’s analysis was fair – as he closes in on the all-time scoring record, Horgan turns 34 halfway through the Munster SHC and it’s difficult to see him start all four of Cork’s Munster fixtures. And it’s evident that Kingston, now blessed with genuine depth in his panel, is assessing all his options of which his former captain clearly features.

There is probably no player in the country who reacts to perceived slights as positively as Horgan. Only last November, he was chiding those who wrote off Glen Rovers ahead of their county semi-final against fancied and unbeaten Sarsfields.

“People would have said during the week we had no chance and we were just coming down to get beaten by 10 points,” he remarked after The Glen’s two-point win. "But this group never gives up and we showed it again today.”

It doesn’t appear Horgan intends surrendering just yet as he goes in search of his first Celtic Cross.

That pursuit could be captivating.

BLACK IS THE COLOUR FOR GOALIES

Something to consider ahead of this football weekend – the number of goalkeepers donning black jerseys.

Simply a preference or may there be method in their fashion sense?

“It's surely more than coincidence that all the counties that use roaming keepers have them kitted out in all black,” writes reader Donal Murphy. “Niall Morgan, Rory Beggan, Ethan Rafferty yesterday for Armagh, Aaron O’Neill from Kildare. Very confusing with another key individual dressed in black also running around the field!”

On top of the four Donal mentions, there’s Shaun Patton (Donegal), Rob Hennelly (Mayo) and Dublin’s Evan Comerford is a deeper shade of navy. Of the eight Division 1 teams, only Kerry’s goalkeeper kit could be considered conspicuous but only because of the gold band.

Whether it’s for the purposes of outfield camouflage or something else, there are more teams like Kerry who are creating snares for advancing goalkeepers. After Monaghan were caught on the break, Rory Beggan’s textbook interception of Mattie Donnelly in last year’s Ulster final was rightly lauded and didn’t Shane Ryan fill space on opposition kick-outs for Kerry.

The practice isn’t going to stop just because of one February afternoon in Inniskeen but it was a timely reminder of the risks involved.

Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie