Eamon O'Shea will wait and see on hurling's experimental rules 

Ireland Hurling/Shinty manager Eamon O'Shea, left, with players and coaches at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Thursday. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Former Tipperary manager and coach Eamon O’Shea is sceptical about the experimental rule changes pertaining to the 65 and pointed sideline.

The hurling expert advisory group have proposed the 65 be pushed back to the defensive half of the field, while two points will be awarded for a pointed sideline cut in the third level Division 1 league games starting later this month.

O’Shea, who managed Ireland in the hurling-shinty international in Cork on October 24, is not casting judgement but will have to be convinced by some of the alterations.

“It makes sense for us to have a look at it, it makes sense to see what works and what doesn't work,” said the 2010 and ’19 All-Ireland SHC winning coach. “When you change one thing, it can also have laws of unintended consequences when you make changes to rules.

“Obviously, the hand-pass has been topical. So, I'd like to see how that works. It has the capacity to move things along. It also has the capacity to create a second pass that will be a short stick-pass. Possibly, it creates the possibility of rucks developing.

“I look at this in terms of the old philosophical question of the hedgehog versus the fox. The hedgehog knows one great thing, the fox knows a lot of things. I just like the game to be played really quickly, and fast and moved. I don't care how we get to that position, what works, and what doesn't work. I'm certainly no expert in the micro level of the various rules.

“Everything makes me wonder, but there is nothing that I'm against or for. The taking back of the 65, I'm not so sure about that. Did you ever try to score a 65 in Croke Park with pressure on you? A 65 is meant to be where the ball is dangerous. It goes out behind because of a great save or an attacking move. There is an offensive action. I always like to reward offensive actions.

“I love the sideline in terms of the ability to put the ball over the bar. Sometimes sidelines can also result from random things that aren't offensive or defensive. They're simply random events. Do you want to change the outcome of a game by giving two points to a random event? Maybe you do, I don't know.” 

Galway’s All-Star nominated forward Darragh Neary is adopting the same wait-and-see approach as O’Shea. “We've to see them in action first until we pass judgement. I'm not opposed to any change or to adapt the game to make it a better spectacle. I'm all for it, in fairness.” Neary, Cian O’Sullivan (Dublin), Andrew Ormonde (Tipperary) and Billy Nolan (Waterford) are four of the seven Liam MacCarthy Cup players who will be part of the Ireland squad to face Scotland in SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh later this month. One or two Cork players could be added following the outcome of this weekend’s senior semi-finals with the remainder coming from the lower tiers of the inter-county game.

O’Shea is assisted by former Tipperary captain and coach Tommy Dunne for the hybrid game that is played with a smaller size 4 sliotar. The regulation size 5 ball is considered by some to be too light for hurling but the Kilruane MacDonaghs man disagrees.

“I'm not sure about making the ball heavier. People do say that but some of the scores that our players get are off the charts in terms of the way they can strike the ball.

“My view of striking it is that the strike and the flow and the sound determine what kind of strike it is. Whatever ball it is, good players who know how to strike will strike it. So, I wouldn't be too hung up on the ball.”