First steps in place for implementing HawkEye at Semple Stadium

The first steps towards implementing HawkEye score detection technology at Semple Stadium will take place on Thursday.

A meeting is scheduled for that morning where the venue will be assessed ahead of the system possibly being put in place in time for the Munster SHC quarter-final between Clare and Limerick on May 24.

The date is a more reasonable potential debut than the latter stages of the league which may be staged at Thurles.

However, as tests conducted at Croke Park demonstrated the process may take longer.

At last November’s Central Council meeting, it was decided that as well as putting forward a motion to Congress proposing HawkEye be made a permanent feature at Croke Park after completion of a two-year pilot at GAA HQ “installation in Thurles and in the redeveloped stadiums in Casement Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh is also to be prioritised”.

Tipperary chairman Michael Bourke confirmed: “It’s being discussed by the relevant committee in Croke Park. There’s a meeting on Thursday morning to look at the stadium and see how HawkEye would be managed there.”

The Limerick County Board have also called for HawkEye to be installed at the Gaelic Grounds.

In his 2014 report, county secretary Mike O’Riordan wrote: “I would be concerned with the proposed installation of the HawkEye system in Thurles and the redevelopment stadia of Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Casement Park and I have formally requested that the Ennis Road venue would be included with the venture.”

First operated in two Leinster football quarter-finals in 2013, HawkEye has had a dramatic introduction to the GAA. A failure to recalibrate the system’s settings for hurling from football meant a legitimate point by Limerick minor Barry Nash’s point was deemed a “miss” during the first half of the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final against Galway. It was Galway who went on to win that game in extra-time. Despite bringing a case as far as the Disputes Resolution Authority, Limerick failed to have the result of the game overturned. However, there was redemption in last year’s drawn All-Ireland SHC final when the technology correctly adjudged John O’Dwyer’s last gasp free, which if converted would have won the game for Tipperary, had sailed narrowly wide.