'Stop whingeing about the referee': Hurling director Martin Fogarty says fouling is 'ruining our game'

'Throwing a shoulder into an opponent's chest, especially when he is not expecting it... is not tough or playing on the edge'

The GAA’s national hurling director Martin Fogarty. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

The GAA’s national hurling director Martin Fogarty says coaches have to look at themselves before condemning referees about the state of hurling and how they have encouraged systematic fouling.

The former Kilkenny selector has written an extensive treatise on fouling in the game on the official GAA website in which he claims systematic fouling is “killing our game”.

He writes: “It amuses or irritates me, I am not sure which, to hear people complain about the frees and the stoppages but when their own teams and players are getting fouled, they are dancing and jumping, raising hands to heaven, and shouting all sorts to the referee. It is like, it is ok for my team to pull and drag, hold and slap, but when these things are done to my players then it is not ok.

“People need to stand up and be counted. Either it is ok to hold an opponent's hurl, or it is not. If it is ok, then change the rule and see what happens! If it is not ok, then stop coaching players to do so, otherwise take the consequences if your players are caught fouling, which is a free and usually a point at top level and stop whingeing about the referee.

“Is it ok to drag or hold an opponent's arm, shoulder or hip? If the majority think it is, then fine let's change the rules and watch our beautiful game disappear and become more like rugby where it is ok to do these things. Is that what the ‘purists’ want?

“Do we want a game where in order to be good at it you must be able to break away from one, two and often three players holding you and dragging out of you? Are we looking at prop-forward type hurlers being the future?”

Fogarty, who alongside Brian Cody prepared the greatest hurling team in the late 2000s, continued: “It sounds macho to speak about ‘taking the physicality’ out of the game or playing ‘on the edge’ but what do people who say these things really mean?

“When interviewed on sidelines or in studio they should be challenged on this issue and asked to be specific. What do you mean exactly by “physicality”? Do you mean allowing some or all of the above? Should we allow hurls to be held or players to be held?” The Castlecomer man, who expressed his delight that referees were finally whistling such cynical fouls and believes it could have a positive effect on future games, added: “Pulling and dragging, holding and slapping is not physicality. It is fouling! It is lazy and it is killing our game. It is a poor player’s solution to not being able to cope with a better opponent.

“Throwing a shoulder into an opponent's chest, especially when he is not expecting it, or slapping down on his hurl as he attempts to rise or strike a ball is not tough or playing on the edge. It is sneaky, nasty, dirty, and often cowardly.

“I would love to see a Sunday Game programme take a different focus some night. Instead of rolling out the usual popular lines of ‘taking the physicality out of the game’, ‘playing on the edge’, ‘letting the game flow’, ‘a game for warriors’, etc.

“I would like to see a large panel actually highlight 20 or so of these stoppages or frees that are being blown, forensically examine them all and then go round the table to each pundit asking of each incident - ‘Well lads/ladies, was it a free or was it not a free", Yes or No.” Fogarty fears the example being set at inter-county level is a negative one for young hurlers. “Young players see it as the norm, and they imitate the practice. How annoying it is for a player to constantly have their hurl held or get pulled and dragged every time they move with a ball. Is it any wonder some react in a manner that they should not, out of sheer frustration?

“I’m not so sure that even some intercounty players actually know the rules of the game anymore. I watched an instance a couple of times over the weekend where a player clearly dragged his opponent back by the shoulder. When blown he was absolutely amazed and his reaction to the referee was ‘how could that be a free’? Now, he is either a very good actor or he does not know that pulling back an opponent is a foul.”