Fogarty Forum: Hurling is in denial about hand-pass
Until hurling addresses the problem of illegal hand-passes, the sport is in denial about its problems. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Like Ben O’Connor, Dónal Óg Cusack is nothing but consistent.
The penalising of hand-passing has been a bugbear of his going back years. In 2022, he argued focus on the hand-pass was addressing a symptom of a hurling ill, not the cause.
“Erring on the side of letting the game flow” was his advice. “I think the genesis of what is causing the issue is the way we’re tackling, the way players are being held up and being forced into different types of handpasses to releases the ball," he said.
Two years ago, he was beating the drum once more. “Before any decision or any thought of a decision around the hand-pass, you need to get the top, top players involved,” he insisted. “You need to acknowledge their skill set and the positive impact of the hand-passes evolution on our game."
On Saturday, Cusack tackled the issue again using pre-match analysis of Jason Forde on RTÉ’s coverage of the Cork-Tipperary Division 1A game. “Any fella that is on about the hand-pass should look at what we showed of Jason Forde,” he remarked.
“Anybody who doesn’t really follow the game of hurling and maybe some, which they do, have inputs into the decisions of hurling, should be shown that. Show it to them a hundred times. If they don’t understand it then at that stage, show it to them a thousand times.”
The clip Cusack refers to was an over-the-shoulder hand-pass by Forde to John McGrath for a point in the first half of last year’s All-Ireland final. Cusack described it as “a tool of intelligence”.
Dónal Óg Cusack describes Jason Forde's handpassing as 'art' and says everyone needs to watch this moment from last year's All-Ireland final.
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) February 7, 2026
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The problem is the footage – and we have watched it tens of times – doesn’t show the ball leaving Forde’s hand as he moves it on. If anything, he rolls it from his palm to his fingers before releasing with an accompanying arm movement.
The problem for Cusack’s defence of the hand-pass is at least two goals have been scored in Division 1A this year where dubious, if not illegal transfers have been made in the creation of them.
In Round 1 against Galway last month, there was no clear disconnect between Tipperary forward Andrew Ormond’s hand and the ball as he passed to Jake Morris who set up Darragh Stakelum for a goal.
There is no accusation here that Ormond threw the sliotar, only that he had not done enough to show he had made a “definite striking action of” the hand as the rulebook stipulates, but the score, that was played during advantage, was allowed to stand.
In Limerick on Sunday, as he used his hand to shield the sun from his eyes, referee Shane Hynes allowed Kilkenny’s first goal despite a questionable hand-pass by John Donnelly to Martin Keoghan. Perhaps persuaded by William O’Donoghue’s remonstration as the ball was passed, Hynes then checked with his umpires but the score remained.
Nothing screamed more ignorance than the GAA’s celebration on their social channels of Conor Burke’s goal against Kilkenny in the 2024 Leinster SHC round game. It seemed the two hand-passes that were technical fouls in the build-up didn’t matter.
If Cusack really wanted to highlight an artistic hand-pass, it would have been Noel McGrath’s reverse transfer to Lar Corbett for his second goal against Kilkenny in the 2010 All-Ireland final.
An obvious disconnection between sliotar and McGrath’s left hand was made before he took three defenders out of the play by slipping it to the ghosting Corbett.
Cusack wasn’t right to wax lyrically about Forde’s assist but maybe he is about the hand-pass being the symptom. Maybe the root of this evil is the pulling and dragging and the spare hand tackling he, in fairness, has been arguing against for almost 15 years. Maybe if, as he said, the tackle was properly defined then players wouldn’t be resorting to getting the ball away by hook or by crook.
Limerick coach Paul Kinnerk would likely argue a hurler should be allowed to use the upper part of the body to challenge an opponent in possession.
“Players that manage to delay attacking players forward momentum with correct ‘frontal’ use of hands, arms and chest that doesn’t break 90 degrees are being punished inconsistently,” he wrote in this newspaper 11 years ago, two years before his golden era with Limerick and John Kiely began. “The ‘hook’ and ‘block’ are of course crucial defensive skills too but are inadequate alone, with teams running with the ball more and more.”
To define the tackle is one thing but to curb it runs the risk of doing exactly what O’Connor has been railing against and taking the manliness out of the game.
The easier fix might be the hand-pass and policing it to the point of zero tolerance or changing the rule as former Tipperary defender Conor O’Donovan has campaigned.
Until so, hurling is living in denial about its problems.
john.fogarty@examiner.ie
Ben O’Connor’s right-hand man Ronan Curran mightn’t have minded the Cork manager’s mention of his company following Saturday’s win over Tipperary.
“That's what every GAA person wants: a good, hard, physical game,” he told RTÉ. “Mycro are saving lives and eyes all over the country with helmets.
“We're supposed to be playing the fastest field game in the world. If I'm running at you full belt, and you come at me with a slight turn or little flick of the head... fellas roaring for yellow cards, red cards. That's what helmets are for.”
Curran is the long-standing general manager of Ballincollig-based Mycro who are currently working with the GAA to develop a new, patented faceguard.
Ben O'Connor reacts to his side's three wins but has questions for referee Liam Gordon as to why 'he blew us up three minutes early' adding, 'was anyone hurt?', explaining physicality is a part of the game.
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“We have a prototype of a new faceguard and certainly within 12 months we hope to have it ready to go,” former Kilkenny chairman and secretary Ned Quinn, chairman of the GAA’s sliotar, hurley and helmet workgroup, told this newspaper last April.
“The intention is the GAA will own the intellectual properties of the faceguards and we will insist the helmet manufacturers use them, but we’re not there yet.” Watching Waterford’s Conor Keane’s cut nose after their win over Offaly on Sunday, it’s obvious more can be done to protect the faces of players (Keane doesn’t wear Mycro, it should be added).
Limerick’s Adam English, who like Keane favours another brand, also suffered a facial injury in a league game against Clare last year.
It's 16 years since helmets were made mandatory across the board. O’Connor himself started his inter-county career wearing one before doing away with it in the late 2000s before having to don it again in 2010 because of the rule change.
The helmet is evolving but it shouldn’t be a licence for head-high tackling.
As our Scouse friends would say, we’ve a right gob on this week.
There are the illegal handpasses and then the incorrect penalties and black cards being awarded in the National Hurling League.
In the nine Division 1A games so far, there have been six black card/penalty awarded (another dubious one fell Wexford’s way in their Division 1B meeting with Carlow on Saturday).
By our assessment, only half of them were either for careless use of the hurley, a trip or a pulldown, the only fouls in denying a goalscoring opportunity, which constitute the double punishment:
1. Mark Fitzgerald on Brian Roche. Careless use of the hurley. Verdict: Correct.
2. Robert Downey on Shane Bennett. Much like above, although the goal opening wasn’t exactly obvious. Verdict: Correct.
3. Ben Miller on Andrew Ormond. A clear pulldown. Verdict: Correct.
4. Matthew Fitzgerald on Reuben Halloran. A bodycheck but none of the prescribed fouls. Verdict: Wrong.
5. Johnny Ryan on Shane Barrett. If it was a trip, it was accidental and there was no use of the hurley. Verdict: Wrong.
6. Mikey Carey on Diarmaid Byrnes. Carey pulled back Diarmaid Byrnes’s arm but it was not a pulldown. Verdict: Wrong.
