John Meyler: 'Whole area of technology in hurling needs to be developed. They'll be in the next report'

On the same day as the announcement of experimental rule changes, expert group chairman Meyler has said there will be further proposals coming down the line.

ON TRIAL: Hurling expert group chairman John Meyler has said there will be further proposals coming down the line. Pic: Eddie O'Hare.

Adoption of the hooter and increased use of technology to facilitate critical refereeing decisions will be proposals put forward by Hurling’s expert advisory group, once the current tranche of recommendations have been trialed and assessed.

On the same day as the announcement of experimental rule changes such as all puck-outs must clear the 45-metre line, deleting the black card, increasing the number of steps each player can take in possession to six, and outlawing consecutive handpasses, expert group chairman John Meyler has said there will be further proposals coming down the line.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Meyler revealed that increased use of technology and the hooter will be later suggestions of his group.

“The two important words in this whole thing are education and communication. The whole educating of players, of mentors, of officials, of the public, of everybody, really, about the rules of hurling is critical,” said the former Cork manager.

“And then the communicating of those rules, hopefully at a later stage, by the use of technology where a referee can say why he's given a yellow card and why he's given a red.

“There's that whole aspect of education of the rules because we don’t know the rules and we don't communicate the rules. We need to communicate the rules to people in the stands at a match and say that yellow card was given for this and that red card was given for that. That’s to help referees, as well, and it gets rid of the debate on a Sunday night and Monday morning.

“I would like referees wired up so you can listen to the referee’s commentary. That whole area of technology needs to be developed. That's not in these recommendations. They'll be in the next report after we trial these recommendations, such as increased use of technology to facilitate critical decisions.

“The hooter should be in there, the sliotar, but that’s later on, we just want to trial these few recommendations announced today in the third-level Division 1 League to see how they’ll work. And hopefully, they’ll go through and we’ll have them in the National Hurling League in 2027.”

Influenced by analysis and feedback from the third-level games where the experimental rules will be trialed, the group will then meet with the Standing Committee on Playing Rules to discuss what proposed changes are sent forward to the clár of next February’s Congress.

For Meyler, the handpass, the number of steps taken in possession, and the consistency of referees surrounding the black card have been the dominant items across every survey response and focus group assembled.

This quantitative and qualitative evidence drove the decision to recommend an increase in the number of steps from four to six, an updated definition of the handpass to include “clear and definite striking action of a hand”, banning back-to-back handpasses, and removing the black card from the referee’s pocket.

“For the trial games, we’re looking at one handpass, and we’ll see how that works. Hopefully it will eradicate false handpassing,” the group chairman continued.

“It's trying to take the weight off referees. It's trying to support them. They have so many things to do, and so it is to try and help them get the critical decisions right.

“There were 135 handpasses in last year’s All-Ireland final. We are trying to limit the handpass and in doing so, that may give rise to more 'Brick' flicks. But what people don’t want to see is two, three, four, and five handpasses in a row. You see that sometimes when the goalie pucks the ball short and then it goes back to him and there is another hand pass, that drives people bonkers.”

With steps not being counted at present and so many flagrant breaches of the legal limit of four, Meyler is confident that increasing the permitted number to six will make “easier” the policing job of referees.

The same mantra motivated the proposal to delete the black card and punish cynical fouls that deny goal-scoring opportunities with a penalty and either a yellow or red card.

The criteria for awarding a penalty and card in this instance has been updated to include a body collide when the opponent has played the ball away or taking the opponent out of the movement of play, to deliberately pull a jersey or to deliberately prevent or restrict an opponent from moving on from playing the ball by holding up an opponent or an attempt to do so.

“We would hope cynical play would not increase because we have removed the black card. When the black card was brought in, it wasn't probably tested well enough. The black card is unclear. It is hazy.

“You look at the two black cards Waterford got against Cork in the Munster round-robin and you look at the Peter Duggan-Nickie Quaid instant, it’s very fuzzy, and so by taking away the black card it increases clarity.

“We're here to support everybody. We said Day One to the referees and to everybody, we're here to support you and to help because the game of hurling has never been better. In terms of speed, skill, strength, physique, all those items, everything is absolutely brilliant. The only problem this year was the four or five games that weren't competitive, but that’s not our remit.”