Kilkenny great calls for complete ban on hurling hand-pass

BAN THE HANDPASSl Kilkenny goalkeeper Noel Skehan in action against Limerick's Ned Rea during the All Ireland Hurling Final. Pic: Connolly Collection/Sportsfile

Kilkenny goalkeeping great Noel Skehan has called for a complete ban on the hand-pass in hurling.

The nine-time All-Ireland SHC winner is adamant that restricting passes to those from the hurley will save the game from what he considers the scourge of thrown hand-passes.

Skehan came to the conclusion last year and the action he saw in the opening round of the National League this past weekend only underlined his belief that hurling is being played illegitimately.

“Once upon a time with the hand pass, a player would throw up the ball out of his hand before passing it and you would clearly see the disconnection there,” says the seven-time All Star.

“Nowadays, it’s different. You can’t see the disconnection, which is tied to the rule that there must be a clear striking of the sliotar from the hand.

“I was looking at matches last weekend and in each one I counted six or seven bad passes, illegal passes from the hand. You can fiddle all you like around with the hand-pass, change it from one hand to the other hand, all this stuff, it won't work. The only way to do it is to get rid of it.”

Skehan is referring to former Tipperary defender Conor O’Donovan’s proposal that the only hand-pass which should be permitted is one where it is struck from the non-holding hand.

His proposal was defeated at Congress last year and did not have the support of the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee.

The Bennettsbridge man is convinced current players are proficient enough to pass from the stick alone. “They’re very good at shortening the hurl. There's a lot of it in already.

“It would be a whole sight better than what we’ve been seeing. It’s a cleaner, purer way of playing the game.

"Now you see these fantastic runs of play and what you think are great scores coming off them, but when you look back there are illegal hand-passes involved.”

Skehan accepts he’s talking against his own county to an extent given their rich handball history.

“You could say we started it,” he laughs. “If Fr (Tommy) Maher was alive and saw what I was saying… I didn’t think I’d ever say it myself, but it’s gone crazy.”

Skehan played at a time when the hand-pass goal and point was permitted – “they eventually did away with it and rightly so because they were being thrown into the net.”

Discontinuing a hand-pass ban, he says, would be a progression.

Skehan also believes players are not being punished for dropping the ball when challenged.

“These lads go into a ruck now and they're dropping the ball. That’s a foul as well. You can't do that or at least you’re not supposed to according to the rules.”

He takes issues too with the amount of time freetakers are balancing the sliotar on their hurleys as they take the placed balls.

“A lot of free takers now are balancing the ball and the hurl the whole time. The ball is supposed to be rolled or jabbed and released into the air before striking.”