William O'Donoghue: New cynical foul rule would heap pressure on refs

Colin Dunford of Waterford is tackled by William O'Donoghue of Limerick during the All-Ireland SHC final in December. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Limerick midfielder William O’Donoghue accepts cynical play can have a big impact in hurling but is not sure how to go about punishing it more than is being done currently.

As the sin bin (minus the black card) is being proposed for cynical fouls that stop goal-scoring opportunities, the two-time All-Ireland winner and All-Star nominee believes it’s a grey area.

While acknowledging the late professional foul he committed against Stephen Bennett in December’s All-Ireland final, O’Donoghue wonders if the GAA could regret trying to classify such fouls and punish them with a penalty shot and sin bin.

“I don’t think there is a lot of cynical play in hurling. Now you can rattle off 10 or 12 instances of a clear goal opportunity when somebody’s hurley has been held back. When games are defined by such close margins there is a huge argument to say a game could have been won or lost (by that).

“The Leinster final last year, when Huw Lawlor held back a Galway player’s hurley. Had he scored that goal, it could have been a different game. There are huge repercussions when a cynical foul does take place but I don’t know if the frequency of it… you look at VAR in soccer and people were screaming for that and VAR came in and now everybody is screaming to get rid of VAR. You look at a good change like HawkEye and the advantages it has brought to the game.

Na Piarsaigh and Limerick hurler William O'Donoghue at the launch of Sportsfile's 2020 edition of A Season of Sundays. This year's eagerly anticipated offering looks back at all the memories throughout a year like no other and is once again supported by Carroll's of Tullamore. Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile

“It is hard to know what the effects of a black card or something like that would have on the game. Then if the guy is making a genuine attempt (to tackle) and gets tripped up and brings a guy down is that a black card? I’m sure there will be a lot of extra permutations and it’s also extra pressure on the ref to make a call was it cynical or wasn’t it?

“If it happens in the first minute of an All-Ireland final and it’s a misinterpretation by a referee that’s an awful lot hanging on.

I just think refs have an awful lot on their plate as it is and that would be another factor they would have to be really sharp on.

Along with Lawlor’s, Adrian Tuohey’s foul on Seamus Callanan and Danny Sutcliffe’s trip, O’Donoghue and Declan Hannon’s fouls in the All-Ireland final have been held up as cynical fouls that denied goal-scoring chances.

“I don’t think we are a very cynical team,” insisted the Na Piarsaigh man. “As I said, the most blatant one of the year was probably in the Leinster final. That can be painted of us, or they can say that it’s part of our play. You can’t alter what people think or what they see.

“I certainly wouldn’t take it as a dig towards us that a cynical foul or a black card or whatever would impact us more than any other team. I’d say if you looked at some of the foul counts, in most of the games we played this year, I don’t think we’d be up there as the most cynical. Well, we certainly don’t aim to be anyway.”

- William O’Donoghue was launching Sportsfile’s 2020 edition of “A Season of Sundays, which is available now on www.sportsfile.com and from bookshops nationwide and is priced at €27.95