Brian Gavin: Take manliness away and hurling loses a lot of its appeal
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.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By that, I mean you look at the performances of Fergal Horgan in Nowlan Park and Johnny Murphy in Pearse Stadium on Saturday. The two displays that they gave couldn’t be further apart.
While Fergal was doing his best to let the game flow, Johnny was pinging every foul. Now, ask the public what they want and I would hazard a guess and say 90% would side with Fergal’s take on things. Johnny would have his supporters but a referee who contributes to the spectacle will always be favoured more.
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. You have to allow the manliness in the game. Take that away and hurling loses a lot of its appeal. At the same time, the blatant free has to be called.
Getting that balance right is the trick but it was hardly difficult for Seán Stack in Thurles and Paud O’Dwyer in Ennis yesterday. Everyone was expecting two cracking games to conclude the round stages of the Munster championship but they were damp squibs.
In Semple Stadium, Seán’s penalty decision was right – Rob Downey did enough to be punished for infringing against Mark Kehoe in the area. I didn’t see enough evidence to send off Alan Flynn but Seán was adamant he had jabbed with the hurl, whether he saw it himself or had advice.
It was another decent display by Seán. I would have been worried the direction he was going in three or four years ago but he has shown this season he is up to the standard that is required. Along with Fergal, Paud and John Keenan, he is hitting the right notes.
I’d say Paud couldn’t believe his luck with how easy things were for him in Cusack Park. Other than Cian Nolan grabbing Stephen Bennett and pulling him to the ground and the two of them were booked, he was on top of his game. Umpires, in those situations, should be instructing goalkeepers to pass the word out to their corner-backs that such behaviour can’t be tolerated, although Clare will be delighted with another sticky corner-back.
On Saturday, Fergal had shown great advantage for Wexford’s goal when Matthew O’Hanlon was fouled in the build-up. Kilkenny were aggrieved with two good shoulder challenges called against them but it was in general a strong evening for Fergal.
In yesterday’s U20 All-Ireland final in Thurles, Hawkeye was in operation, I’m led to believe, and it didn’t question a disputed first-half point by Kilkenny. It was a quick call by the umpire – and a brave one too – to raise the white flag.
There was confusion because it wasn’t confirmed if HawkEye was in operation for the game as it clearly was for the second game. For games where the score detection technology is used, everyone should know about it beforehand.
Another thing to note was Colm Lyons being down to referee the Carlow-Offaly McDonagh Cup game but he ended up doing fourth official. It appears the injury that affected him last year has resurfaced and he could be in bother for future games.
Finally, credit to Croke Park for making referees and the public aware of appointments well in advance of games this year. Last week, all four provincial football final referees were known. The sooner officials know, the more time they have to prepare especially for high profile fixtures.
