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?

Referee Colm Lyons gives a free for an illegal hand pass during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group B match between Waterford and Tipperary at Walsh Park on Sunday. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

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.