Fennelly offers new ‘circle’ proposal to solve hurling’s penalty conundrum

Former Kilkenny manager, Kevin Fennelly, has proposed the introduction of a three-metre circle around the 20m line from which hurling penalties can be taken from.

Tipperary’s two missed penalties in the All-Ireland final reopened the debate on this contentious issue, with the change of rule mid-season preventing players striking inside the 20m line leading to a radical drop in conversion rates.

Fennelly played in goal for Kilkenny but also lined out in the attack for both club and county. Having faced penalties, and taken them for Ballyhale Shamrocks, he has seen both sides of the equation.

“The first thing you have to realise is that if you don’t hit it right, you don’t deserve to score it, and none of those two penalties Tipp had were struck in the right manner,” says Fennelly.

“It is slightly harder to score them when you’re not able to move them inside the area. I think if they put a three-metre circle around the line, and let them take it from within that circle, it would solve all the problems.

“It gets them into 18 metres. If you’re not able to score from 18 metres, you don’t deserve to score them. I do agree with curtailing it because the main thing about what [Anthony] Nash and TJ [Reid] were doing is that the ball is so lively. We used to take a few steps and that was alright. You need to be able to score goals. The three-metre circle would solve it. You could place it outside and run in. It’s simple.”

He believes that being constantly questioned, even within their own county, is what has kept this Kilkenny team going for so long. At the start of the year, he thought they had gone to the well too often and Tipperary would be the 2014 All-Ireland champions.

“What keeps Kilkenny going is that we’re sceptics. We’re all the time looking for a reason to get beaten rather than recognise they’re better than everyone else. I think that’s what keeps the team grounded. They’re the same. They’re concerned about the challenges.

“Clare won an All-Ireland last year and I heard it said this year that they were tired and never hit the heights of last year. Fellas of 23 years of age that have won one All-Ireland. Our lads have played in 11 or 12 of them over 15 years.

“Winners like winning. A great sign of winners is fellas that don’t like losing, and that’s what these lads are.”