Former GAA president Liam O’Neill backs sin bin to protect hurling

Former GAA President Liam O'Neill: 'Pat Daly and I stuck our necks out in 2008 and 2009 when the black card in hurling was ruled out at Congress. We have been reaping the results of that ever since.' Picture: INPHO/Donall Farmer

One of the leading advocates against cynical play says the sin bin should be introduced to protect hurling’s status as the most skilful game in the world.

Former GAA president Liam O’Neill has wholly endorsed plans to debate a motion aimed at curbing some of the cynicism in the game at Annual Congress at the end of this month.

Appointing the late Eugene McGee to chair the Football Review Committee, O’Neill was successful with director of games development Pat Daly in introducing the black card to Gaelic football eight years ago. But the Laois native and Daly had long harboured a similar plan for hurling only his previous attempt as rules taskforce chairman was narrowly defeated at Congress in 2009.

As the standing playing rules committee propose a penalty shot and a sin bin for a prescribed cynical foul that prevents a goal-scoring opportunity, O’Neill is looking forward to the discussion.

“I am delighted it’s been looking at. Pat Daly and I stuck our necks out in 2008 and 2009 when the black card in hurling was ruled out at Congress. We have been reaping the results of that ever since.

The hurling man just will not allow hurling to be discussed the same as football and that type of thinking has been that way.

“You’re now seeing the pull-back now and body checks and it’s stopping skilful play. Hurling is about skill and it’s the most skilful game in the world - I’d debate that with anybody - and if you don’t allow a person who is skilful to display his skills you’re doing down the game.

“At this stage, it’s high time it be looked at. Since the 1990s to up to recently, it has become the most skilful and it became that because of the manner in which it was played.

“Now, the cynicism took over and I don’t care what anybody says never was cynicism more exemplified than in last year’s All-Ireland and it’s time we debated it. Somebody is going to have to stand up and say we protect the skilful player. Back in 2009, we brought in the sin bin not because of discipline but protecting the skilful player.”

For the 2009 National League, a player in both Gaelic football and hurling deemed to have committed one of a list of fouls was shown a yellow card and dismissed for 10 minutes. Following 11th hour lobbying by hurling counties, it failed to receive the then required two-thirds majority support by 2%.

“I spoke to skilful forwards back then and they said, ‘It wouldn’t suit our backs’. I said, ‘What about the fact you’re a skilful forward?’ but that was their thinking,” O’Neill recalls. “During my presidency, I visited hundreds of schools and almost every time I was asked to explain the drive to bring in the black card in football for the frontal charge, for tackling the person after they had moved the ball, for tripping and pulling down.

“Every time, my answer was ‘do you like being tackled that way, do you like being thrown to the ground in a forceful way, do you like being tripped on hard ground?’ And the answer was ‘no’. I asked them then did they think of themselves as a skilful player and the answer was yes. I then said, ‘We brought that in to protect you’.

“The mantra has to be ‘protect the skilful player’. Think of them, the DJ Careys, the Henry Shefflins, are they entitled to protection and the answer is yes.

Nobody liked to see DJ pulled and slapped down to the ground but it wasn’t as prevalent then as it is now.