2020 proposals put hurling fraternity on yellow alert
“No, I don’t think you can say that,” he replied. “It’s just a solution. Does two yellow cards deserve 14 versus 15? Our recommendation is no, it doesn’t. Players should go to the sideline but be replaced.”
That wasn’t how Pat McEnaney interpreted it. The referees chief viewed the proposal to allow players who have incurred two yellow cards to be replaced as encouraging rather than curbing cynicism.
“So a player would be able to pull down an opponent twice and then replaced? He’d be allowed to trip an opponent twice and then replaced? In Gaelic football, you’re sent to the line and replaced for doing it once.”
The overriding message from Liam Sheedy’s group was a simple one: hurling is special and should be treated as such. An otherwise worthwhile document, its double yellow card idea is nothing more than a cheerleading compromise. “I am delighted that we don’t have cynical fouling,” said Sheedy in introducing the report. “Our game is very clean and is played in the correct spirit.”
Sheedy later corrected himself and stated “if there is cynicism creeping into the game, it would be on the edge of the square and we feel the best way to address that is the one-on-one (penalty)”.
But does assessment go far enough, metaphorically or literally?
For one, Dónal Óg Cusack’s genuine concerns about the use of the “spare hand” in the game appear to have been gone unheeded.
Sheedy’s sentiments are indicative of how large swathes of hurling interprets the game. Those more zealous can barely mouth the word “cynicism” to the point that one wonders do they appreciate what it actually means.
Limerick’s Stephen Lucey understands its definition. As a dual player, he has more of a rounded opinion than most of where the two codes stand at the moment. He doesn’t advocate a black card but contributed to the Hurling 2020 questionnaire asking them to distinguish between deliberate and accidental fouls, exactly what the Football Review Committee laid down as the definition of what is and isn’t a black card in the bigger ball game.
“Yellow cards are being given out too easy,” Lucey says of hurling. “If you make a genuine attempt to go for the ball but accidentally hit the player, it shouldn’t be a yellow card. If it’s a dirty stroke, then it’s a yellow card.
“I’ll give you an example: if a guy rises the ball and you go to flick it away as it’s in the air and he’s trying to catch it but you catch him on the helmet the sheer sound of the helmet prompts this ‘oh, no’ reaction, and the referees flashes a yellow card. As for a (straight) red card offence, everyone knows what it is.
“Everyone loves to see hurling flowing. I’ve been to club championship matches in Tipperary and there’s a lot more let go than in Limerick. I don’t mean dirty strokes but the tipping and tapping frees, as I call them, aren’t there. You flick a ball off a fella’s hurley and the sheer sound of the two hurleys hitting can convince referees in Limerick to give a free. That drives me mad. The slightest touch and the free is given.
“I’m not talking about nudging a fella in the back. It’s frustrating for you but you’re the idiot for running into the back of the other fella. They’re frees and I’m not giving out about them.
“I disagree with the two yellow cards idea because it won’t do anything but encourage foul play. There is cynicism, of course there is. I know from playing in the full-back position that if a guy is going through and you have the choice of pulling him down to save a goal, you have to do it. You’re told to do it. The new penalty will help deal with that but that’s only for fouls around the goals.”
Redmond Barry too played enough of both games at the highest level with Wexford to understand that hurling isn’t beyond reproach.
“If you’re through on goal and somebody hauls you down by the jersey and gets the yellow card when it could be a black card... I can’t see why they haven’t brought the black card into hurling. There aren’t as many examples of cynicism in hurling compared to football but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I don’t see why there was a need to go different roads on it.
“It’s a red card, two yellows. Two yellows could be fairly nasty challenges too. The black card is a good idea, replacing a fella for one cynical foul, but you can be a little more reckless with the two yellows.”
Neither Lucey nor Barry should have too much to worry about as the double yellow card proposal is expected to soon die a death.
But the decision by the Hurling 2020 committee to include it among its 15 recommendations illustrates their intention to make a clear distinction between the two games.
That is further evidenced by their call for a separate national hurling referees committee. However, there is already reluctance at central level to incorporate that at a time when there is a countrywide campaign to recruit match officials in the face of falling numbers and dual referees have become more of a commodity.
Only, the problem there is asking referees to switch codes at the drop of a hat and expect them to be proficient in both. “They are caught between two stools,” says Barry of dual referees. “They’re only human and I don’t think the GAA are helping them one iota. I’ve no problem saying that because you could go out one day and the person in possession would win a free but in the exact same scenario the following week and he would be blown up for fouling the ball. It’s nearly gone to a stage now where you have to see who is reffing the game and consider how they ref it and what way you will have to play.
“Are they being clearly shown what’s a tackle and what’s a foul in each game? They have to do a job and they’re no different to the players but referees should be paid before players ever are. If referees are paid players will be happy because they know the refs are being trained.”
Current Limerick footballer Lucey knows football, a year on from the introduction of the black card, still has its challenges, particularly the tackle, which had been addressed by the Football Review Committee.
“It’s so messy. Another thing which pisses me off as a defender is the number of people who duck into you. You’re taught as a defender to put your two arms out and stop him but don’t wrap your arms around. You have to make yourself big, you can’t keep your arms by your sides because he’ll just go around you. The forward runs at your arm and slides down to the ground and that’s just forwards trying to buy frees and the referees always give them. Forwards are coached to do it and it’s cynical and it pisses me off. It’s like soccer, it drives me nuts.
“There’s no one solution. Referees needs to be listened to but there needs to be more training and more definitions. It all comes down to the tackle. I saw Kieran McGeeney make the point this week that if you boxed in a fella with four or five of your team years ago, there was nothing wrong whereas now the free is given against you. You’re taught hand-in, hand-out but referees see that and because it happens so fast, they’re giving frees. If they’re not sure they should err on the side of letting it go but they do have a very difficult job.”
Hurling referees will be no different even after this latest report. When it comes down to it, reviews can only do much.
