Thoughts from a football man watching the hurling

[Galwaybhoy]

As I said there was one or two bad challenges that went unpunished and the Benny Dunne incident was terrible and warrents a long suspension.  But other than that it was just a hard hitting game like hurling is supposed to be.  If the ref blew the whistle for every little hand on the back hurling would be a terrible sport.  I think your making it out to be worse than it was.

[Rawhide]

As a football man I wonder why does all in sundry go mad at football games expecting the ref to send a man off when he shoulder charges and hits  man in the head area as he is coming up after picking the ball off the ground. It happened twice in the hurling final yesterday and the bloody ref didn't even blow for a foul.

[Zulu]

If the ref blew the whistle for every little hand on the back hurling would be a terrible sport.  I think your making it out to be worse than it was.

I don't think I am, I've played hurling for over 20 years and I appreciate some things have to be ignored or, as you say, the game would be very stop start. But there were a number of blatant fouls yesterday that prevented the man in possession from playing the ball constructively and should have been blown. Yesterday the rule book was torn up as opposed to the game being 'left to flow' and this shouldn't be brushed aside (without being too dramatic about it). All sports would better spectacles if loads of fouls were ignored and the game was just let flow but there are consequences for that too. All we hear about in football is refereeing consistency, well I can guarantee you most hurling games aren't reffed like yesterday and if they were someone would be seriously hurt at a game with no TV cameras.

[Bogball XV]

As a football man I wonder why does all in sundry go mad at football games expecting the ref to send a man off when he shoulder charges and hits  man in the head area as he is coming up after picking the ball off the ground. It happened twice in the hurling final yesterday and the bloody ref didn't even blow for a foul.

that's really the point, football games are pored over by analysts demanding suspensions for every misdemeanour, in hurling they're barely mentioned.  It's all about consistency, same thing with the review panels at the start of the championship and the blind eyes turned towards the end of the championship.

[Rossfan]

  If the ref blew the whistle for every little hand on the back hurling would be a terrible sport.

Yet these are blown all the time in football. 
Where is the consistency and why does  the referees committee never try and do something about it?
The least they could do is tell football refs to hold the bloody whistle in their hands instead of their mouths.

[johnneycool]

I thought it was pretty spectacular - the amount of gamesmanship and cute /dirty play in both teams yesterday.
Far too often the Antrims and Waterfords are blown away not just with hurling skill,but the cute hoorism and wee bits of craft that the likes of hurling superpowers Kilkenny, tipp and cork bring to the game.
From running almost in front of a freetaker (Conor OMahoney) to wee digs and pushes/pulls / slaps off the ball (Tmmy Walsh) - it showed that these are not robots, that they are men willing to do what it takes - like Canty was accused of in the AI semi final v tyrone.

OK maybe not in the true spirit of the game, but dont kid ourselves.
this isnt under 10s - this is the AI final and top level senior hurling.
Two very good teams squaring off and tipp unlucky at not taking the two goal chances they created. You knind of knew when these were missed that Tipp would pay for missing.
Then when Benny dunne got the line it was ominous.
I enjoyed the game. Good final and exciting enough.

great advert for hurling, and I liked the wee bit of 'craft' in it !

To the untrained eye a lot of that craft is missed, the wee slap of the hurl on the elbow as lads go to lift the ball, the tug and let go as a man is trying to strike the ball, all enough to put a man off but not enough for the referee to blow for a free as over 50% of a GAA pitch is within scoring range hence referee's think harder before giving them.

In football ref's are more inclined to give free's as it doesn't hold up play as much (fouled player either takes it himself or pops it up to a team mate to take from the hand) and a lot of the time the free's are inconsequential, i.e well outside the scoring zone which in football is roughly 40 to 45 metres out. Ref's won't give soft (yet correctly) frees in these areas. Human nature i suppose.

[lynchbhoy]

I thought it was pretty spectacular - the amount of gamesmanship and cute /dirty play in both teams yesterday.
Far too often the Antrims and Waterfords are blown away not just with hurling skill,but the cute hoorism and wee bits of craft that the likes of hurling superpowers Kilkenny, tipp and cork bring to the game.
From running almost in front of a freetaker (Conor OMahoney) to wee digs and pushes/pulls / slaps off the ball (Tmmy Walsh) - it showed that these are not robots, that they are men willing to do what it takes - like Canty was accused of in the AI semi final v tyrone.

OK maybe not in the true spirit of the game, but dont kid ourselves.
this isnt under 10s - this is the AI final and top level senior hurling.
Two very good teams squaring off and tipp unlucky at not taking the two goal chances they created. You knind of knew when these were missed that Tipp would pay for missing.
Then when Benny dunne got the line it was ominous.
I enjoyed the game. Good final and exciting enough.

great advert for hurling, and I liked the wee bit of 'craft' in it !

To the untrained eye a lot of that craft is missed, the wee slap of the hurl on the elbow as lads go to lift the ball, the tug and let go as a man is trying to strike the ball, all enough to put a man off but not enough for the referee to blow for a free as over 50% of a GAA pitch is within scoring range hence referee's think harder before giving them.

In football ref's are more inclined to give free's as it doesn't hold up play as much (fouled player either takes it himself or pops it up to a team mate to take from the hand) and a lot of the time the free's are inconsequential, i.e well outside the scoring zone which in football is roughly 40 to 45 metres out. Ref's won't give soft (yet correctly) frees in these areas. Human nature i suppose.

exactly what I mean!!
I spotted a hell of a lot of those yesterday, while a lot of people might dislike this, there is an art to it all too !

[lilpaulie85]

exactly what I mean!!
I spotted a hell of a lot of those yesterday, while a lot of people might dislike this, there is an art to it all too !
[/quote]

These things need to be looked at in a serious light as it takes from the game as a whole, it is in essence cheating after all. It also seems that the top teams seem to get away with alot more of this sort of behavior than others. On the other hand I can see the problem in spotting the offence. It is natural to assume that great players like tommy walsh or J.J. have won the ball legaly as you would expect this to happen most of the time.

I think the Gaa could look at the possibility of maybe a second ref in hurling due to the speed at which the ball can go from end to end, it is not humanly possible for one person to keep up with a fast paced game.

[the waffler]

Hardstation you are being petty on many levels with that stuff about Canning. For one he is a uniquely gifted individual. For two I would love to see his conversion rate from 70m in. For three, and most importantly, I deliberately didn't bring taking a score into from a sideline into it. If a score is achievable from any dead ball in any sport, of course it makes sense to attempt it. Lumping possession away though from a dead ball appears to be a fascination in hurling.

Its a fascination with the down bogballers as well not just the dead ball 95% of balls