Bass: Cynical play in hurling ‘not being properly punished’

Cynical play in hurling isn’t being properly punished, argues the man behind the Congress motion calling for a black card.

Saturday’s Annual Congress meeting will consider four separate motions from the Maastricht club in Holland, all of which relate to the introduction of a black card in hurling.

Maastricht chairman and long-time Europe GAA official Tony Bass is responsible for the proposal and believes it’s a logical move.

Aside from standardising rules across both codes, Bass believes the black card sanction will plug a gap that currently exists. He pointed out that various types of cynical play in hurling are being punished with yellow cards, when they warrant the stronger black card sanction.

“What you have at the moment is lesser sanctions in hurling for similar things that are getting black cards in football,” said Bass, a referee for over 25 years.

“They’d be a yellow in hurling when ideally they should be getting a black. It’s pretty simple really — cynical play in hurling is as bad as cynical play in football.

“The immediate reaction from hurling people is often that there’s no cynical play in the game — but if there isn’t then they have nothing to worry about, do they? “And I do think that having a sanction like the black card is more likely to ensure that cynical play doesn’t happen. It’s a deterrent and we’ve probably seen that from football in the last year.”

GAA President Liam O’Neill has previously stated that he’d ‘love’ to see the black card introduced to hurling.

“The Tyrone and Dublin county secretaries said it should be examined also,” noted Bass. “I believe in not putting it into a report as a suggestion but actually acting on it and making the proposal as we have done here.”

Bass accepts that many people involved with hurling claim that the game is fine as it is in most respects.

“Well, there are some people in hurling who want the referee to throw the ball in and then disappear,” said Bass, originally from the Cuala club in Dublin.

“The question I’d ask hurling people is what have they got to fear? Who exactly is coming out saying they don’t want to punish cynical play? I’m coming to this as a hurling person myself and I believe it’s a logical move.”