Cunningham joins chorus of disapproval at sideline issues

Solving a problem that didn’t exist and creating needless other issues in the process.

That seems to be the consensus of hurling managers on the subject of the number of sideline personnel restrictions introduced by Croke Park.

Last week Kilkenny’s Brian Cody and Martin Fogarty were joined by Dublin’s Anthony Daly and Clare’s Davy Fitzgerald in their condemnation of the regulations. And on Sunday the Galway management team added their dissenting voices to the rule.

Manager Anthony Cunningham admitted: “Kilkenny said it quite strongly during the week and they’re correct. We never saw an issue, there was never hassle on the sideline for any inter-county match that we’ve been involved with. I’d be concerned about medical (issues) — our players are the priority.”

That concern is real and pressing. Only five are allowed on the line, two of those double-jobbing trying to service 15 players with hurleys and water throughout the field. What happens in the dog-days of summer when the temperature rises, in every sense, when hurleys are broken and guys are in danger of dehydration? What happens if there’s a serious injury and a team doctor is urgently needed but has to make his way from the stand? Also of concern, though to a lesser degree, is the matter of communication between selectors. Tom Helebert spent the afternoon in the stand on Sunday for Galway and learned an interesting lesson.

“From a management process point of view it’s very difficult. When you’re on the sideline you can engage in dialogue directly, when you’re remote, you’re not engaged. Firstly, how do you communicate with the other lads, secondly, you’re at the mercy of the crowd. We have an intercom system but on a noisy day you can’t hear it. Because you’re sitting right in the middle of the crowd you’re at the mercy of every rogue in the place who can’t wait to tell you what you’re doing wrong. I should have written it down because there was some wonderful advice! So from a management process there are a whole lot of problems with it and from a player perspective it’s not workable either, from the medical viewpoint. That’s our biggest concern, how to keep the machine working on the field, that’s the biggest job we have.

“This (new rule) doesn’t have a basis where we can figure out where it’s coming from. Last year when we were competing in Croke Park and elsewhere, we understood the protocols and the rules that were in place and if you breached the rule you got fined. There was a good process there, it was an established process and we knew what fine suspensions were in place if a guy misbehaved on the sideline.”

Meanwhile on the field, away from all that unnecessary controversy, Galway managed to get the business done, albeit against a weakened Kilkenny side — veteran Damien Hayes’ first of three first-half goals setting them up for a 3-11 to 0-17 win.

“Brilliant, absolutely brilliant and we’re delighted,” says Hayes, “We scored three goals and they were three good goals. We needed them because we didn’t score a lot of points. It was great to get them and the crowd loves them too, so that gets them behind the team. But it’s only the start – we won our first game last year and we ended up fighting relegation so we won’t be getting carried away. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, it’s good to win.

“We ground it out, which was the main thing. We’re trying to win all of our league games, simple as that. There’ll be no soft chat here. We have a big panel, there’s huge competition and we want to win every game we play.”