FOGARTY FORUM: Why the rulebook needs to be followed
It seems almost the calling card of what’s deemed a fine game — something has to be fractured.
Or some blood shed at least. As some of Kilkenny’s players hung around on the Nowlan Park pitch to sign autographs and pose for photographs on Sunday, the battle signs as much as the smiles were obvious.
Close to Tommy Walsh’s eye was a cut. Paul Murphy had a sizeable laceration on one finger while Jackie Tyrrell had blood splattered on his shorts and leg.
Later, we discovered Lar Corbett had suffered broken ribs during the encounter.
Hurling’s biggest games of late have had casualties. In last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, Michael Rice had his hand smashed. In the final replay, TJ Reid suffered a fractured kneecap. In last month’s league semi-final, Fergal Moore was seriously concussed after a collision.
Corbett’s injury only adds to a list of serious injuries that should be of growing concern to those who care about the game.
Because let nobody be in any doubt that hurling has become a more dangerous game. While the rule shave remained the same, the progress of those who play at the ultimate level has been phenomenal.
Bigger, faster and stronger, the collisions between the country’s best hurlers have never been as startling as they are now.
Pat McEnaney might be easily dismissed as a football man by the more snobbish hurling people but the referees’ chief recognises the duty of care to players.
He’s given the directive that referees have to get closer to applying the rulebook that is there and not become distracted by pleas to let the game flow.
That, of course, won’t curry favour in certain quarters. On RTÉ’s League Sunday, Tomás Mulcahy dismissed McEnaney’s claim that there should have been seven or eight more red cards in last year’s Championship.
“To me, that is absolute nonsense,” he said. “I hope that is not going to follow through into the Championship.
“We saw today eight yellow cards (in Nowlan Park)... the yellow card offences today were not much more than an actual ticking offence if they were even actually a ticking offence.”
Mulcahy should have a closer look at the rulebook because Barry Kelly was right in issuing the vast majority of cautions.
Certainly Kelly is refereeing differently to what he was a couple of years ago but he’s the better for it and gave an excellent All-Ireland final display last year.
Mulcahy did raise concern about the number of injuries picked up since the introduction of mandatory helmets. It’s an issue McEnaney highlighted to his referees earlier this year.
The Cork man’s comments can be understood because we are all liable to lose ourselves in a good game of hurling. If ever there was an example of it appealing to our primitive psyche it was in the passage of action leading up to Corbett and Delaney’s sendings off: Noel McGrath attempts a shot at goal but is hooked by Aidan Fogarty and he intercepts to kick the ball towards midfield. Brian Hogan picks up the loose ball and marauds through the Tipperary middle until he is met by a thundering Padraic Maher shoulder and has to hand-pass back albeit overcooked.
McGrath gathers the ball again and absorbs a challenge by Lester Ryan and then a hefty shoulder by Eoin Larkin close to the sideline, the Kilkenny crowd cheering in delight at their players’ physical attempts to thwart him..
He eventually pucks the ball forward but it only finds Paul Murphy, who almost inspired by the stadium’s reaction, solos down the field and is blocked by Shane McGrath, whose hurley breaks in the process. After a frantic scramble, Brendan Maher eventually gains possession but is blocked by Michael Rice before the thrill of Kelly’s whistle calls a halt to the action.
In those frenzied 40 seconds, the ball was exchanged between the team five times. Spectators were baying for more of the same but the cut and thrust waned somewhat after Corbett and Delaney’s red cards.
As much as some hurling folk won’t like to hear it, the game has the same problem as football in that a looser application of the rules can lend itself to better spectacles.
However, the rulebook isn’t merely a reference guide: it’s there to be followed as much as it does require updating to reflect the advancement of teams.
Divert from it and while the chances of more full-blooded games might improve the risks of an increase in serious injuries are far greater.
One of the most misguided criticisms of the GAA in recent years has been their supposed failure to begin the Championship with a bang.
Except the provincial system ensures the four councils’ hands are tied from the time the draws are made each autumn.
This year, however, sees a cracking start to the GAA summer with a resurgent Galway hosting an established Mayo on Sunday week followed by the mouth-drooling prospect of Donegal and Tyrone locking horns in Ballybofey on May 26.
A week later and on the day novelty takes over in Croke Park with Hawk-Eye’s unveiling, Clare face Waterford in what is sure to be a ferocious opener to the most open Munster senior hurling championship in years. Yet for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. With such a rich beginning to the Championship not to mention Dublin and Kildare drawn on the same side in the Leinster SFC, we’re likely to see the best teams face one another before the final in all bar three of the six All-Ireland provincial competitions.
In football, Munster is the only province likely to provide a kingpin decider with the expected meeting of Cork and Kerry in Killarney.
It will ensure the qualifiers are dotted with mines from an early stage not to mention further ammunition for opponents of the provincial structure.
In Limerick and Kilkenny this past weekend, we heard two rounds of hip-hip-hoorays. That was two rounds of hip-hip-hoorays too many for our liking.
The winning captain’s traditional acknowledgement of the losing team has long been outdated and should be cut from the protocol. Often you find the captain has to be reminded by an official to call for three blasts of the cheer because he has either forgotten or is too embarrassed to demand it from his supporters. A few words of praise to the vanquished team is adequate and certainly more suitable than a cry that is tired and wholly redundant in its intention to promote sportsmanship.
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