Dubs vent handpass rule fury

THE backlash against the controversial handpass rule continued yesterday with both the Dublin football and hurling camps united in their condemnation of the regulation which has dominated reviews of last weekend’s championship action.

Football attacker Paul Flynn labelled the new rule as “a disgrace” and reckons the six counties who played last Sunday were “the guinea pigs” who suffered most from its implementation.

He said: “I think it’s a disgrace, but what are you going to do? You saw Kieran Donaghy at the weekend give a clear handpass and it was overturned. In Derry and Armagh, Eoin Bradley gave a hand pass and the referee was behind him. He decided it was a foul, but there was no way that he could have decided it was a throw. That’s impossible. Those teams were the guinea pigs, they got the harsh end of it and it might be a bit better next weekend. It’s the first round of Championship, but if that happens in an All-Ireland quarter-final, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the referee.”

Pat Gilroy’s football squad make their Leinster championship bow on June 13 against Wexford and Flynn believes the best course of action to avoid sanction from referees is for players to ensure they pass with a closed fist. He also agreed that players will simply have to get accustomed to the rule as GAA chiefs are unlikely to backtrack on the issue.

“I think if you just stick to the handpass with the fist you will be better off. That’s what I’m going to do, I thought about it after watching the matches. I can see a lot of teams just reverting to the fist pass. I can’t understand the rule but there’s no changing it now so you just have to deal with it and get used to it.”

The handpass may not have as much relevance in hurling, but Dublin boss Anthony Daly insisted it is still an issue of concern for him after observing the weekend’s football action.

Dublin face either Carlow or Laois in their Leinster SHC opener on June 6 and Daly revealed he will draft in inter-county referee Eamonn Morris to talk to his squad about what to expect come championship.

“I would have concerns after seeing what happened last Sunday. It was crazy watching The Sunday Game because I don’t think that we ever thought that we would see footballs being thrown around Montrose.

“Why don’t they just leave it alone? There’s no need for it at all.

“There’s not as much hand-passing in hurling as in football but you’re going to have frees stopping a lovely flowing movement so hopefully there’ll be common sense. It doesn’t happen often but there could be a crucial one of a full-forward catching the ball, laying it off and a great goal being scored and the ref blowing for it because he wasn’t happy. We’ll probably get Eamonn Morris to have a quick chat about one or two things.”

Daly has been paying strict attention in training in recent weeks to his players method of hand-passing and has been penalising them for balls that are thrown rather than properly passed.

“Fellas are all their lives handpassing the ball a certain way and it is hard enough to get them to practice it properly in training as well. It’s easy to throw it when you’re doing handpassing drills as you want everything going fast. We’ve been working on it and trying to blow up for fellas when they aren’t doing it right.

“Without stopping a drill, we’ve been saying ‘that’s not right’.

“I played with Brian Quinn long enough to know that there’s an art to throwing it as well! A throw is a throw and a handpass is a handpass? If you spot the throw, blow it.”