Wexford revive hopes of introducing hooter

WEXFORD have upped their campaign to introduce the clock/hooter motion to the GAA.

County chairman Ger Doyle confirmed the matter was discussed at their monthly meeting last week. The Clonard club had the motion passed at last year’s Congress but it was later ruled out due to concerns about the cost of installing the mechanism.

“The Uachtarán told us it was too expensive but we have been told it would cost €300 a day to hire one (clock/hooter) out,” revealed Doyle.

“We had a county board meeting last week and it’s certainly not gone off the radar. It’s back on the agenda for us.”

Last October, Central Council voted to defer the introduction of the motion on grounds of “cost and practical difficulties”. It was estimated the system would cost €250,000 to put in place.

The Central Competitions Control Committee also pointed out a number of ambiguities in the definition of the system in the motion. The motion read: “That the clock/hooter system be introduced to signal the conclusion of a game following the notification by the fourth official or other designated person of the finishing time to include added time to be played.”

For instance, it wasn’t made clear whether the referee would retain the time-keeping. However, the case for making the whole issue more transparent has grown stronger this year.

It came into sharp focus in the All-Ireland football final when over 60 seconds elapsed between referee Joe McQuillan awarding Dublin what proved the winning free and keeper Stephen Cluxton taking it. After blowing the final whistle shortly following Brendan Kealy’s restart, the official didn’t include time lost in Cluxton moving from his goal-line to the ball.

In this year’s Allianz Hurling Division 1 final, Dublin had a goal disallowed after referee Michael Wadding blew up for half-time before Conor McCormack’s shot hit the Kilkenny net.