Daly: new rules won’t disrupt hurling

CONCERNS that the implementation of the experimental rules in hurling will disrupt play are unfounded, according to the GAA’s head of games Pat Daly.

In fact, his conviction is that if they succeed in eliminating the type of “disruptive fouls” which are being targeted, the game is going “to speed up”.

And, pointing to the Tyrone/Dublin game in Croke Park last Saturday night, he said that the benefits of the rule changes were obvious to everybody.

“You had taken the cynical stuff out of it — the deliberate fouling. Players have to show a lot more respect for referees for the simple reason that if they don’t they are on their way (off the field). Up to now it was a case of bend the rules to the limit. Now, the bottom line is the player has to take responsibility for his own behaviour.

“It’s it a bit of a sea-change in approach. You are basically saying to the player if you play by the rules you won’t have a problem, but if you don’t you will be sent off and be substituted unless you commit a red card infraction. I think that’s fair reasonable and anybody who would have an insight into behaviour modification psychology would understand the core principles that underpin it.”

While Galway star Joe Canning spoke out against the use of the rule changes in hurling — expressing the view that they would slow up the play — Daly said that they would listen to anybody ‘who has played the game’ and listen to what they have to say. However, he suggested that Canning’s view was based on his experience in a game between Galway and Offaly earlier on, which was played in very poor conditions.

“We do concede on that occasion there was at least one player who shouldn’t have been sent off,’’ he commented. “He got a yellow card in what was deemed as a ‘body collide’ but wasn’t. That was part of the learning process. We would still be adhering to what we said last week. While recognising people’s right to pass judgement and comment, we do believe that in terms of body colliding and neck-high tackling, there is an issue around that in hurling that needs to be eradicated from the game.’’

Referring to the DVD which the Rules Revision Committee produced — depicting all the ills of the game, highlighted in major games — he said that ‘one thing that stuck out in hurling’ was the high incidence of players tackling with their arm around an opponent’s neck. “It also showed that body colliding is increasingly creeping into the game and another thing which is becoming very prevalent in hurling, unfortunately, is tripping.

“There are a couple of ways of looking at this. You can say we are going to entertain tripping, we are going to entertain pulling down or we are going to entertain the arm around the neck, or careless use of the hurley. You can say that a yellow card will suffice for any of those things, but what you are effectively saying is that we can then legislate for 30 such offences in every game — that every player can commit one of these once.

“We are saying we don’t want any. By penalising the player that commits one of these fouls, he is off the field, there is a sub in and the game carries on. The foul we are talking about is something that does not happen spontaneously. It’s a pretty deliberate thing and nobody could deem body colliding, tripping, hurleys around the neck or pulling down to be part of the game because they are not.”

Daly made a point of stressing that the Rules Revision Committee accept there has to be ‘a lead-in period’ and that they are obliged to take on view the opinions of managers and players.

While he accepts that weather conditions at the week-end are likely to be “less than suitable” for the opening round of the National Hurling League, he takes encouragement from the feeling that there is now “a consciousness and an awareness” of the rules that might not have been there in the past.

“What we are trying to do in the first instance is to bring coherency to something that’s terribly confused at the moment and then get an element of consistency. The level of confusion with regard to the rules at the moment is enormous — it’s all over the place at every level. But, once we get that level of coherency I am absolutely certain we will get consistency across red, yellow and black offences that’s currently not there.”

He accepts that “the biggest bugbear” for players, mangers, spectators, and officials was the lack of consistent application of the rules. While the changes have met with some resistance, he states the feedback in terms of consistency so far has been “first-class”.