A good article in the Irish Times.
It may be time for hurling to be more tightly controlled by referees.
Some of the exchanges are getting ugly.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0822/1224322660315.html
Rules of the game there to protect the players
SEÁN MORAN
ON GAELIC GAMES: The failure to apply the rules of the game and the poor sportsmanship on view at Croke Park last Sunday did the game of hurling a disservice
HISTORY REPEATS itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. We know Karl Marx couldn't have been speaking of the recently perennial Kilkenny-Tipperary rivalry because last Sunday was the third successive repeat and it ended in both tragedy for Tipperary and farce for everyone else.
Tragedy is generally a bit strong a description of anything in the sporting arena but Tipp's decline since 2010 has many elements of the classically tragic: hubris, falling from high estate and resulting calamities. Declan Ryan, Tommy Dunne and Michael Gleeson have had an unhappy two years and the one thing they can pass on to their successors is radically readjusted expectations.
But Ryan and Dunne were great players for the county and made significant contributions to winning All-Irelands on the field. They were plausible appointments and it didn't work out but for no more than the most basic expenses they signed up for a world of anxiety, frustration and accountability.
When the horror show had concluded on Sunday, Ryan still came out to face the television cameras, to give his interview and – on a day when we heard the adjective used in its peculiar GAA meaning of belligerent and disorderly – to accept with 'manly' forbearance the responsibility for all that had gone wrong.
There were indeed farcical aspects – and by this stage the funny photo-shopped pictures of Tommy Walsh and Lar Corbett have begun to proliferate on the internet – of Tipperary's defeat but none plumbed the depths of the disciplinary farce.
It wasn't that there was a sustained series of shocking fouls but the undercurrent of nastiness and poor sportsmanship was palpable. The widespread scatters in the opening minutes – including symbolically the two captains getting stuck into each other – were calmed down but only one player, Walsh, was punished, with a yellow card.
Yet there is a Category II infraction in the playing rules, at 5.6: "To contribute to a melee". It's punishable by a red card. Might it have been harsh to send players off for what happened? Perhaps, but rules are there to regulate behaviour and by taking no action against virtually everyone involved, referee Cathal McAllister effectively deemed the carry-on acceptable.
Even a few yellow cards would have put players on notice and forced them to risk dismissal if their behaviour didn't improve.
The referee was credited with reasserting his control of the match but more blatant omissions were to follow. Pádraic Maher astonishingly got a yellow card for clearly pulling across TJ Reid but in the first half his wild, one-handed pull ended up breaking Michael Rice's hand and putting him out of an All-Ireland final.
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, whose high threshold for 'physicality' has been publicly expressed on many occasions, didn't appear at the time to regard this stroke as 'manly' and was visibly agitated on the sideline.
The incident summarised one of the problematic attitudes in hurling. It's all very well to say that the damage which may force a player out of the biggest occasion of the year was 'accidental' and 'unintentional' but where is the game if it has become a virtue that you didn't intend to injure an opponent? Rule 5.14 outlines the Category III, red card infraction: "To inflict an injury recklessly".
In other words we don't have to categorise Maher – or anyone else – as a "dirty player" in order to decide he has a duty of care to opponents. McAllister isn't the issue here. He may be an official with a reputation for 'letting play flow' but in this he appears to be part of a contemporary preference.
One leading hurling referee remarked privately that he believed he and his colleagues were at fault for allowing too much to go unpunished in elite level, intercounty matches but he said that none of the game's stake holders – spectators, players, managers and administrators – appeared to have any appetite for change.
It's hard not to have sympathy for referees in this environment. Ask yourself what importance is attached to the virtues of discipline and being determined to play the ball and nothing else.
For any of the 50,220 in Croke Park on Sunday, the disturbing scale of the early confrontations were obvious. For those watching the live broadcast the issue was discussed as follows at half-time by the RTÉ panel of Cyril Farrell, Ger Loughnane and Tomás Mulcahy.
Having described the exchanges as "ferocious" Loughnane went on to say: "The danger is that someone will analyse this in a video and start blaming people for what went on and see who hit who. That's rubbish. Those things happen at the start of a game. There's no one injured – hard physical exchanges and the game settled down."
Mulcahy added: "I think the referee was right at that stage because if he was going to flash yellow cards all over we'd have had no teams. At times the referee Cathal McAllister – he's from Cork and he's known for not blowing the whistle – you'd wonder was there a pea at all in the whistle because at times he just let the play go and it has made for the first half."
Given the reach of the national broadcaster and the influence of its analysts on perceptions, who'd have wanted to be a referee, who did his job and punished indiscipline according to rule – "rubbish", according to an All-Ireland winning manager – and dramatically affected the dynamic of the game? Only Farrell brought any sense of perspective to the issue, pointing out that you can't apply the rules everywhere else and then dispense with them in Croke Park.
It's not just enforcement. It's over two years since Tipperary's now-retired Declan Fanning required more than 20 stitches after having being effectively attacked with his own headgear. Still there has been no reform of the rule that makes it merely a yellow-card infraction to interfere with an opponent's faceguard – despite the fact that this now routinely happens. For instance Corbett on Sunday was sporting a cut on his cheek within four minutes. In the second half Kilkenny's Richie Power had his headgear tugged off – and ended up conceding a free.
Shaking someone's head around in a helmet risks cuts and worse, neck injury. It is a ridiculously dangerous practice and laying a finger on an opponent's headgear should be a strict liability red card.
As a nation we've been brought to our knees by failure to respect rules and the willingness of some to ignore regulation that doesn't suit their interests. The GAA should be making sure that the national game doesn't continue to walk the same path.
It may be time for hurling to be more tightly controlled by referees.
Some of the exchanges are getting ugly.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0822/1224322660315.html
Rules of the game there to protect the players
SEÁN MORAN
ON GAELIC GAMES: The failure to apply the rules of the game and the poor sportsmanship on view at Croke Park last Sunday did the game of hurling a disservice
HISTORY REPEATS itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. We know Karl Marx couldn't have been speaking of the recently perennial Kilkenny-Tipperary rivalry because last Sunday was the third successive repeat and it ended in both tragedy for Tipperary and farce for everyone else.
Tragedy is generally a bit strong a description of anything in the sporting arena but Tipp's decline since 2010 has many elements of the classically tragic: hubris, falling from high estate and resulting calamities. Declan Ryan, Tommy Dunne and Michael Gleeson have had an unhappy two years and the one thing they can pass on to their successors is radically readjusted expectations.
But Ryan and Dunne were great players for the county and made significant contributions to winning All-Irelands on the field. They were plausible appointments and it didn't work out but for no more than the most basic expenses they signed up for a world of anxiety, frustration and accountability.
When the horror show had concluded on Sunday, Ryan still came out to face the television cameras, to give his interview and – on a day when we heard the adjective used in its peculiar GAA meaning of belligerent and disorderly – to accept with 'manly' forbearance the responsibility for all that had gone wrong.
There were indeed farcical aspects – and by this stage the funny photo-shopped pictures of Tommy Walsh and Lar Corbett have begun to proliferate on the internet – of Tipperary's defeat but none plumbed the depths of the disciplinary farce.
It wasn't that there was a sustained series of shocking fouls but the undercurrent of nastiness and poor sportsmanship was palpable. The widespread scatters in the opening minutes – including symbolically the two captains getting stuck into each other – were calmed down but only one player, Walsh, was punished, with a yellow card.
Yet there is a Category II infraction in the playing rules, at 5.6: "To contribute to a melee". It's punishable by a red card. Might it have been harsh to send players off for what happened? Perhaps, but rules are there to regulate behaviour and by taking no action against virtually everyone involved, referee Cathal McAllister effectively deemed the carry-on acceptable.
Even a few yellow cards would have put players on notice and forced them to risk dismissal if their behaviour didn't improve.
The referee was credited with reasserting his control of the match but more blatant omissions were to follow. Pádraic Maher astonishingly got a yellow card for clearly pulling across TJ Reid but in the first half his wild, one-handed pull ended up breaking Michael Rice's hand and putting him out of an All-Ireland final.
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, whose high threshold for 'physicality' has been publicly expressed on many occasions, didn't appear at the time to regard this stroke as 'manly' and was visibly agitated on the sideline.
The incident summarised one of the problematic attitudes in hurling. It's all very well to say that the damage which may force a player out of the biggest occasion of the year was 'accidental' and 'unintentional' but where is the game if it has become a virtue that you didn't intend to injure an opponent? Rule 5.14 outlines the Category III, red card infraction: "To inflict an injury recklessly".
In other words we don't have to categorise Maher – or anyone else – as a "dirty player" in order to decide he has a duty of care to opponents. McAllister isn't the issue here. He may be an official with a reputation for 'letting play flow' but in this he appears to be part of a contemporary preference.
One leading hurling referee remarked privately that he believed he and his colleagues were at fault for allowing too much to go unpunished in elite level, intercounty matches but he said that none of the game's stake holders – spectators, players, managers and administrators – appeared to have any appetite for change.
It's hard not to have sympathy for referees in this environment. Ask yourself what importance is attached to the virtues of discipline and being determined to play the ball and nothing else.
For any of the 50,220 in Croke Park on Sunday, the disturbing scale of the early confrontations were obvious. For those watching the live broadcast the issue was discussed as follows at half-time by the RTÉ panel of Cyril Farrell, Ger Loughnane and Tomás Mulcahy.
Having described the exchanges as "ferocious" Loughnane went on to say: "The danger is that someone will analyse this in a video and start blaming people for what went on and see who hit who. That's rubbish. Those things happen at the start of a game. There's no one injured – hard physical exchanges and the game settled down."
Mulcahy added: "I think the referee was right at that stage because if he was going to flash yellow cards all over we'd have had no teams. At times the referee Cathal McAllister – he's from Cork and he's known for not blowing the whistle – you'd wonder was there a pea at all in the whistle because at times he just let the play go and it has made for the first half."
Given the reach of the national broadcaster and the influence of its analysts on perceptions, who'd have wanted to be a referee, who did his job and punished indiscipline according to rule – "rubbish", according to an All-Ireland winning manager – and dramatically affected the dynamic of the game? Only Farrell brought any sense of perspective to the issue, pointing out that you can't apply the rules everywhere else and then dispense with them in Croke Park.
It's not just enforcement. It's over two years since Tipperary's now-retired Declan Fanning required more than 20 stitches after having being effectively attacked with his own headgear. Still there has been no reform of the rule that makes it merely a yellow-card infraction to interfere with an opponent's faceguard – despite the fact that this now routinely happens. For instance Corbett on Sunday was sporting a cut on his cheek within four minutes. In the second half Kilkenny's Richie Power had his headgear tugged off – and ended up conceding a free.
Shaking someone's head around in a helmet risks cuts and worse, neck injury. It is a ridiculously dangerous practice and laying a finger on an opponent's headgear should be a strict liability red card.
As a nation we've been brought to our knees by failure to respect rules and the willingness of some to ignore regulation that doesn't suit their interests. The GAA should be making sure that the national game doesn't continue to walk the same path.