Pat McEnaney wants more players sent off!

[Premier Emperor]

McEnaney wants tougher stance from hurling refs

The head of the GAA's national referees committee has called for significant improvement from hurling match officials in 2013.

Pat McEnaney has said his committee is disappointed that "seven to eight clear red cards" were missed by referees in this year's hurling championship.

He described such a situation as "unacceptable" and signalled a change in approach in 2013.

His comments come as former GAA president Nickey Brennan questions the performances of the officials in two of Kilkenny's last three championship matches that resulted in serious injuries sustained by two of their players.

Michael Rice required the insertion of seven screws in an operation on a hand that was left shattered after a blow from an opponent's hurl in the All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary, while TJ Reid's kneecap was fractured by a blow from a hurl in the All-Ireland final replay against Galway.

"The two incidents involving Rice and Reid were very serious and we are once again left wondering how the GAA can punish the aggressors if such incidents are not handled properly by the match officials," wrote Brennan in his weekly 'Kilkenny People' column.

Review

McEnaney said he wouldn't be specific about any particular incidents but admits that, overall, he finds it hard to disagree with the former president's views and confirmed that the NRC has conducted its own review with referees since the championship.

"As a group, I'd have to say we weren't happy with it. There were only two red cards in this year's championship. We felt in our review that there should have been seven to eight more red cards that were clear offences. That's a figure of 16pc that we got right, which is not satisfactory," he said.

The former football referee, who took charge of three All-Ireland finals, has been head of the referees' committee since April and frank in his assessments this year.

Brennan pulls no punches either in his analysis. "I know that some Kilkenny players have stepped over the line on occasions and were rightly punished for their misdemeanours," he wrote.

"Such punishment was accepted and the team moved on to the next challenge. It is therefore ironic that at the end of another championship year, two of Kilkenny's star men, TJ Reid and Michael Rice, will play no part in their club's current championship campaign.

"Both were the victims of appalling indiscipline in which the perpetrators went unpunished for reckless use of the hurley.

"I accept that neither player went out intentionally to cause the Kilkenny opponent a serious injury, but in the heat of a contest unsavoury incidents sometimes occur which have no place in Gaelic games.

"It is simply not good enough to talk about hurling being a man's game and whatever happens on the field being left there."

Earlier this year, on the eve of the hurling league final in May, Kilkenny manager Brian Cody made quite an impassioned plea to officials to stop trying to take the physicality out of the game.

The GAA's Central Competitions Controls Committee can rarely give out retrospective suspensions now because of a change in the protocols in revisiting incidents already dealt with by referees.

McEnaney is adamant, however, that his group are convinced there should have been five times as many red cards in the 2012 championship.

"We have to accept that we missed them and that's a good starting point for us in 2013."

McEnaney sees room for improvement overall in football too but is satisfied that there was improvement in the critical areas they targeted in 2012 -- body checking, the protection of the high fielder and interference by opponents with injured players who are lying on the ground.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/mcenaney-wants-tougher-stance-from-hurling-refs-3264703.html

[Armagh Cúchulainns]

Well I cant say that Pats comments arent unexpected. Is this down to the press surrounding the injury to Michael Rice, capped off with the buildup to both finals that heavily focused the refeeres and their potential performance as well as the expectations of what each was going to 'let go'.

I just hope that this isnt a statement that leads the way to the appointment of referees that will be card happy throughout leagues and championships next year.

In a broader perpective, and as a referee myself, I feel that given the way that GAA games have developed especially in the last number of years; Hurling and Gaelic should have seperate rule books that are adapted to the needs of each sport, in particular the area of tackling.
Far too often there are debates over what is not 'let go' in Gaelic as opposed to the 'Brian Gavin' way of refereeing that is often the view as to how Hurling is refereed.

[sans pessimism]

The great Pat McEnaney.......Saviour of the Royals '96.What a legend

[Rossfan]

You'd think McEnaney would know that the first rule in the hurling rules section of the T.O reads
" The referee shall ignore everything else written in this section " 

[Absent]

With the punishment handed out by KK players over the last several years not to mind the cynical tackles most of us forecast that other teams would up the anti and meet fire with fire,unfortunately some KK players came out the wrong side this year.At last the GAA are going to say stop and I agree with this,however it should have been done several years ago,why the change of heart now?

[Bud Wiser]

""Hurling and Gaelic should have separate rule books that are adapted to the needs of each sport, in particular the area of tackling.""

The best suggestion on this board in a while, otherwise hurling will turn into a cissy sport like football where you get a yellow card for having your hand on your opponents shoulder while he is trying to pass the ball all of five feet to his teamate.

With the punishment handed out by KK players over the last several years not to mind the cynical tackles most of us forecast that other teams would up the anti and meet fire with fire,unfortunately some KK players came out the wrong side this year.At last the GAA are going to say stop and I agree with this,however it should have been done several years ago,why the change of heart now?

Pure bullshit, your not from Cork by any chance?  Kilkenny play the game as it should be played, unfortunatley over the last 'several' years and many more of them they can get nobody to play with them.  If you take the 8 top teams in hurling are you going to say they are not as physical as the Cat's?   It is about time that the moaning stopped about Kilkenny and that pure hurling skill rather than allegations of winning by cynical tackles has got them where they are.

[Paul Callanan]

I suppose all of this does go back to the Michael Rice injury but maybe it was a badly needed wake - up call. I'm all for the game being physical and allowed to flow. Everyone is, but our players need to be protected too and maybe we lost sight of thati n the last couple of years. There was a lot of wild pulling this year that went unpunished. The hard tackling from 1 -15 that's a part of the game now is fantastic but a wild pull can end a player's year, maybe his career and affect his ability to earn a living. The game won't lose anything in clamping down on wild and intentional pulls on an opponent. No one wants to see fussy refereeing in hurling but I don't think that's what's being proposed. Just a bit more protection. I'm with Pat on this one.

Obviously AC and Bud are right that hurling and football should have seperate rulebooks. 2 different sports sharing one rulebook is ludicrous really.

[Absent]

I suppose all of this does go back to the Michael Rice injury but maybe it was a badly needed wake - up call. I'm all for the game being physical and allowed to flow. Everyone is, but our players need to be protected too and maybe we lost sight of thati n the last couple of years. There was a lot of wild pulling this year that went unpunished. The hard tackling from 1 -15 that's a part of the game now is fantastic but a wild pull can end a player's year, maybe his career and affect his ability to earn a living. The game won't lose anything in clamping down on wild and intentional pulls on an opponent. No one wants to see fussy refereeing in hurling but I don't think that's what's being proposed. Just a bit more protection. I'm with Pat on this one.

Obviously AC and Bud are right that hurling and football should have seperate rulebooks. 2 different sports sharing one rulebook is ludicrous really.

You are so right, a badly needed wake up call,pity that some KK supporters only noticed the dangerous play in 2012.

[waterfordlad]

Pat McEnaney is right. Referreeing became too lenient in recent years in hurling. Brian Cody is one of the biggest critics of the sin bin and stricter refereeing and red cards in inter county hurling are almost non existent now and two of his players have unfortunately picked up serious injuries. It was ridiculous to see what went on in the Tipp Kilkenny semi final without anyone being sent off or disciplined after the game. Padraic Maher committed a number of yellow and one red card offence and somehow lasted the entire game but he wasn't the only one at it. The referees and Gaa authorities will have to get stricter next year.

[Bud Wiser]

Right he may be - to an extent anyway but there are plenty of hurling referees who have given over 20 years to the GAA, Michael Wadding from your own county being one, who deserve to be called upon and their time paid for to provide a report on this matter. Pat is head of the national referees committee and he is a football refereee. Like every county board outside of the top ten hurling counties, hurling will be the poor relation around his table. 

There should be a seperate forum in Croke Park for hurling referees and let Pat concentrate on enforcing the rules that already exist in football, like asking himself how he couldn't see Marty Clarke kicking a high ball into the square where Benny Coulter had been standing as if he were waiting for a bus before denying Kildare one of the few chances they had at an All-Ireland in 2010.

Over the last five years there have been more rule changes in football than there were in the previous 125 years and look what we have today?  KFSAFH  (Keep Football Suits Away From Hurling)

[johnneycool]

Can I start off with saying that Nicky Brennan is a self serving p***k?

'Brennan pulls no punches either in his analysis. "I know that some Kilkenny players have stepped over the line on occasions and were rightly punished for their misdemeanours," he wrote.'

And a lot haven't been punished either Nicholas...

From a Kilkenny perspective you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds so complaining about the bad injuries picked up by Rice and TJ Reid (not sure if he picked his up from a dirty pull!) after Cody going on all year about the physicality being refereed out of hurling borders on hypocrisy.

There's nothing wrong with the rules of hurling, but cuteness in terms of holding, body checking, third man tackling etc, which is coached into teams now makes life harder for referees who now have to make decisions on marginal calls and with the pressure to let the game flow. If you'd looked close enough at Donnellan's sending off, he was being held by JJ Delany and if following the rule book should have been a free in, no doubt he lashed out in frustration and deserved his red, but that cuteness which pushes the boundaries will either get worse as managers and players try to eek out and advantage by hook or by crook or we'll watch referee's blowing for all and sundry in the NHL and hope that the players and managers cop on and change tack a bit.

I'd like to see a 10 minute sin bin for the cynical stuff as it'll give referee's another option as they do loathe to throw out the reds for persistent fouling irrespective of what Brian Cody says.

[the waffler]

cant think of to many bad injuries dished out by kilkenny players could be wrong tho nothing wrong with the game let it alone

[Bord na Mona man]

cant think of to many bad injuries dished out by kilkenny players could be wrong tho nothing wrong with the game let it alone

Nope, Kilkenny rarely do the wild and silly stuff.
To succeed at the very top of hurling these days, you seem to need to do a lot of stuff that is not very legal, but not tightly policed by referees.
The stuff johnnycool has already mentioned above.

The spare hand is now as important as the hurley holding hand these days. The first thing challenging players do now is to grab the man in possession with the spare hand and try and drag him back and impede him. Trying to steal the ball is no longer the primary form of tackle, upper body grappling is.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Correct on the use of the spare hand.  The trick is to grap the opponent, impede him, then release the grabbing hand withing about a half a second.  The ball-carrier's momentum is halted but is not being 'fouled'.  The ref won't then blow because then it's "ah ref!" and anyway nobody is being obviously held.

The spare hand is now as important as the hurley holding hand these days. The first thing challenging players do now is to grab the man in possession with the spare hand and try and drag him back and impede him. Trying to steal the ball is no longer the primary form of tackle, upper body grappling is.

[Bud Wiser]

Good men, keep at it and by the time this thread gets to another page it will be a civil court case to block someone down.  Are ye sure its not camogie or gaelic football ye are taking about?