Liam Dunne: Putting one man on the line for a penalty is a joke

Wexford manager Liam Dunne has questioned the findings of the reports released this week by the Hurling 2020 and minor review committees.

Dunne finds fault with the one versus one penalty proposal as well as the recommendation to prevent minors from playing at senior level.

He believes a small tweak to the penalty, ordering players to lift the ball from beyond the 20 metre line, is a better alternative.

“If the rules of hurling have to changed because of one man (Anthony Nash) I don’t know where we’ll be in 10 years’ time. I’ve taken and faced penalties all my life. You could have kept the three men on the line, drawn a new line three yards back from the 20 metre line and told fellas to lift the ball from there.

“If they can come in with the ball from there they can come in with it but the three men still have a better chance of saving it. It’s not an anti-Anthony Nash or anti-TJ Reid thing. Everyone would be given a fair chance, both the taker and the lads on the line.

“Putting one man on the line is a joke. I’ve been told before that common sense isn’t in the rule book but we’re making so much work for ourselves. That the committee had to sit down for this amount of time to come up with one man on the goal-line for penalties says a lot.”

If the proposal restricting minors from playing senior had been introduced for last season, Dunne would not have been able to field Conor McDonald, who later claimed an All Star nomination.

“How many Conor McDonalds or Joe Cannings are you going to have? Once in a blue moon, maybe. Jimmy Doyle, Eddie Keher and John Quigley were good enough to play minor and senior for Tipperary, Kilkenny and Wexford. They are the exceptions.

“They’re missing the big point here: they’re going on about these young players but there wasn’t a hoot given about Wexford having to go out and play four games in 22 days last summer. Now all of a sudden you have lads playing Walsh and Fitzgibbon Cups and other competitions and there’s no order.

“We’re papering over the cracks here, trying to keep things going. Targeting these young lads who are good enough to play both minor and senior isn’t the way to go.”