Brian Gavin: Take manliness away and hurling loses a lot of its appeal

The problem here once again is consistency. How can you expect hurling to develop and counties to perform to the best when one referee is saying yes and the other no

Referee Fergal Horgan with Jack O’Connor of Wexford in Saturday's Leinster SHC R5 tie against Kilkenny. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

During the week, I received a text message from a sports media outlet asking me if all the frees were to be blown in hurling what would be the total.

Truth be told, you’d be hitting the 50 marker if all were to be whistled. Normally, you’re looking at an average of 24 to 28 being awarded. Even when you take into account the use of the advantage rule, there are a lot of fouls that aren’t resulting in frees.