Hurling Rules being ignored
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:29 pm
(I don't normally put my paper pieces up here any more for obvious reasons, but I'm working on this bit and I'd like to throw it out there for debate as well as to get a bit of feedback on it. I stopped hurling at around 15 years of age due to ineptitude and as such I sometimes miss some of the subtleties of the game that others pick up on. This is my reading of matters, but others may have a more nuanced and experienced view....)
In so many ways, last Sunday's defeat to Kilkenny was a sign of how much Offaly had lost touch with the continuing evolution of hurling. Kilkenny, managed by a man who was one of the losing finalists in that famous Leinster final of 1980, took the field with a powerful and accomplished team of hurlers and blew Offaly away with a combination of efficient use of the sliothar and physical dominance all over the field. Brian Cody has long understood the importance of fielding and power in the game of modern hurling, with the prerequisite that the player had all the basics of the game already mastered.
Brian Hogan, Sunday's RTE man of the match, is in so many ways the perfect Brian Cody hurler. He holds his ground, he eats puckouts all day long and his ability to hurl off either side and his excellent vision means that when he gets the sliothar into his hand, he invariably delivers it to the advantage of a team mate.
For too long Offaly hurling trainers and players have stayed true to the old mantras of “letting the ball do the work” and ground hurling, at least until 2005 when the 31 point beating in Croke Park opened a few eyes about how unsuited to the modern game that style is. Next Wednesday Offaly will continue their Leinster under 21 campaign in Birr against Wexford and it's notable that this panel, by far the county's best chance of a Leinster title for many years, is much more adept at the aeriel power based hurling style which is now espoused by all successful teams. Derek Morkan, Brian Leonard, Diarmuid Horan and Joe Bergin are all examples of players who can marry traditional hurling skills with the fielding skills that are now crucial, while players like Derek Molloy and Conor Mahon play in a style that would not have seen them get close to a county panel twenty years ago but they nonetheless will be of vital importance next Wednesday.
However in exploring how this change in the game came about, there is a real case for saying that it is the lack of enforcement of many of hurling's rules that has handed so much advantage to the team in possession, to the point where possession has become nine tenths of the law in hurling terms as well as in general life. The rules in question have not changed in recent years and taken one by one, their transgression does not make a huge difference when they are applied equally to both sides. It is on looking at the composite effect that it becomes clear why a hurler who is very adept at winning 50/50 ball is nowadays much more valuable than one who is unable to do this but has all the other skills of the game.
Firstly, we look at the most significant offence not being whistled – charging. Historically, when a defender or attacker caught the ball, they did so under pressure and then turned away from their marker, using the four steps allowed to get some space before playing the ball, more often than not running towards their own goal. The resultant strike was then invariably played blind with little control. This also meant that the old fashioned skill of overhead pulling was prevalent as a good overhead connection was as likely to hit the ball in the right direction as a ball that had been caught and then hurled. A player like Brian Whelahan who could hit the ball exactly where he wanted it to go despite being under pressure and running the wrong way became an invaluable asset in this environment.
Nowadays however the game has changed – instead of the fielding player using his four steps to move away from his marker, he uses the first two to barge into him, knocking him back. He then takes one step to the side himself and can now look down the field to see exactly where he wants it to go before hitting the ball on his front foot. Brian Hogan, or indeed most modern half backs like Ken McGrath, Seán Óg Ó'hAilpín or Eamonn Corcoran are perfect exponents of this new style which rarely if ever gets whistled. Because the initial contact looks like a “clash” of two people moving into each other while there isn't any momentum built up, the ref lets it go and the player gets the ball cleared. The clearance goes 90 yards towards the target full forward instead of the usual 40 or 50 over the shoulder to no-one in particular and the catching player's advantage is more than doubled. This barging also plays into the hands of running forwards who often charge into the defender, another offence that doesn't get called. Kevin Broderick gets lauded for his pace yet a large part of his game is based on getting away with this.
The second foul being whistled intermittently rather than consistently is the throwing of the sliothar instead of the legal handpass and it follows on from the previous point. The catching player barges, but if the marker does not get bumped far enough back, modern fitness dictates that within a couple of seconds the player in possession will be swallowed up by three or four opponents. What is happening nowadays is that the player in possession uses this “cover” to throw the ball out of the crowd and this is being let go by referees. Several players, particularly in Cork where the running game is so prevalent, have developed a handpass where it is so close to being illegal that the ref has no choice but to let it go or he would be whistling for it all day and receive untold abuse in the media for "not letting the game flow". While technically it's a legal handpass once it goes so much as a half an inch out of the hand before being struck, so many of the modern handpasses as so imperceptible to the modern eye that referees forgive all but the most blatant – furthering the advantage to the team in possession.
Our third foul is the next resort of the charging player when bottled up – lying on the sliothar. In theory this is a free against the offender – but the surprise when Brian Gavin correctly gave this decision against Dónal Óg Cusack in last year's drawn All Ireland quarter final shows just how unused to seeing this we are. This is another get out clause for the team in possession and another blow to ground hurling as it means that players lie on the ball rather than dropping it to be played along the ground.
Finally, there is one last sly trick of the running player – the throw ahead of himself. Check out the replays of last Sunday's game and look at the first goal, where Shefflin flings the ball some five feet ahead of himself in order to give himself room, then scoops it up without breaking stride, thus securing the space he needs. In theory the player is attempting to put the ball onto his stick for a solo run, but of course if he has his opponent beaten for pace or turning, the careless fling is just as useful and easier to execute. If a player as good as Shefflin really wanted to put the ball on his hurl, he would. The fact that he did not break stride shows that the sliothar was exactly where he expected it to be. The O'Connor twins in Cork, Eoin Kelly in Tipperary and Barry Whelahan of Birr are other exponents of this trick, which is also – as long as the ball hits the ground before hitting the hurl – a foul.
No referee goes out to deliberately ignore the rule book, but much like classroom Irish and spoken Irish having subtle differences on occasion, rulebook hurling and real hurling are two slightly different games and it is the imbalance in favour of the team in possession that has led to the modern game becoming so different to what Offaly players have been indoctrinated with for so long. Trainers and players have no choice but to adapt to the game as it is played and certainly the fervent hope is that we begin to see this in Offaly at adult level very soon, but in the mean time referees would do well to remember the rule book as it is written, rather than as people have come to perceive it.
In so many ways, last Sunday's defeat to Kilkenny was a sign of how much Offaly had lost touch with the continuing evolution of hurling. Kilkenny, managed by a man who was one of the losing finalists in that famous Leinster final of 1980, took the field with a powerful and accomplished team of hurlers and blew Offaly away with a combination of efficient use of the sliothar and physical dominance all over the field. Brian Cody has long understood the importance of fielding and power in the game of modern hurling, with the prerequisite that the player had all the basics of the game already mastered.
Brian Hogan, Sunday's RTE man of the match, is in so many ways the perfect Brian Cody hurler. He holds his ground, he eats puckouts all day long and his ability to hurl off either side and his excellent vision means that when he gets the sliothar into his hand, he invariably delivers it to the advantage of a team mate.
For too long Offaly hurling trainers and players have stayed true to the old mantras of “letting the ball do the work” and ground hurling, at least until 2005 when the 31 point beating in Croke Park opened a few eyes about how unsuited to the modern game that style is. Next Wednesday Offaly will continue their Leinster under 21 campaign in Birr against Wexford and it's notable that this panel, by far the county's best chance of a Leinster title for many years, is much more adept at the aeriel power based hurling style which is now espoused by all successful teams. Derek Morkan, Brian Leonard, Diarmuid Horan and Joe Bergin are all examples of players who can marry traditional hurling skills with the fielding skills that are now crucial, while players like Derek Molloy and Conor Mahon play in a style that would not have seen them get close to a county panel twenty years ago but they nonetheless will be of vital importance next Wednesday.
However in exploring how this change in the game came about, there is a real case for saying that it is the lack of enforcement of many of hurling's rules that has handed so much advantage to the team in possession, to the point where possession has become nine tenths of the law in hurling terms as well as in general life. The rules in question have not changed in recent years and taken one by one, their transgression does not make a huge difference when they are applied equally to both sides. It is on looking at the composite effect that it becomes clear why a hurler who is very adept at winning 50/50 ball is nowadays much more valuable than one who is unable to do this but has all the other skills of the game.
Firstly, we look at the most significant offence not being whistled – charging. Historically, when a defender or attacker caught the ball, they did so under pressure and then turned away from their marker, using the four steps allowed to get some space before playing the ball, more often than not running towards their own goal. The resultant strike was then invariably played blind with little control. This also meant that the old fashioned skill of overhead pulling was prevalent as a good overhead connection was as likely to hit the ball in the right direction as a ball that had been caught and then hurled. A player like Brian Whelahan who could hit the ball exactly where he wanted it to go despite being under pressure and running the wrong way became an invaluable asset in this environment.
Nowadays however the game has changed – instead of the fielding player using his four steps to move away from his marker, he uses the first two to barge into him, knocking him back. He then takes one step to the side himself and can now look down the field to see exactly where he wants it to go before hitting the ball on his front foot. Brian Hogan, or indeed most modern half backs like Ken McGrath, Seán Óg Ó'hAilpín or Eamonn Corcoran are perfect exponents of this new style which rarely if ever gets whistled. Because the initial contact looks like a “clash” of two people moving into each other while there isn't any momentum built up, the ref lets it go and the player gets the ball cleared. The clearance goes 90 yards towards the target full forward instead of the usual 40 or 50 over the shoulder to no-one in particular and the catching player's advantage is more than doubled. This barging also plays into the hands of running forwards who often charge into the defender, another offence that doesn't get called. Kevin Broderick gets lauded for his pace yet a large part of his game is based on getting away with this.
The second foul being whistled intermittently rather than consistently is the throwing of the sliothar instead of the legal handpass and it follows on from the previous point. The catching player barges, but if the marker does not get bumped far enough back, modern fitness dictates that within a couple of seconds the player in possession will be swallowed up by three or four opponents. What is happening nowadays is that the player in possession uses this “cover” to throw the ball out of the crowd and this is being let go by referees. Several players, particularly in Cork where the running game is so prevalent, have developed a handpass where it is so close to being illegal that the ref has no choice but to let it go or he would be whistling for it all day and receive untold abuse in the media for "not letting the game flow". While technically it's a legal handpass once it goes so much as a half an inch out of the hand before being struck, so many of the modern handpasses as so imperceptible to the modern eye that referees forgive all but the most blatant – furthering the advantage to the team in possession.
Our third foul is the next resort of the charging player when bottled up – lying on the sliothar. In theory this is a free against the offender – but the surprise when Brian Gavin correctly gave this decision against Dónal Óg Cusack in last year's drawn All Ireland quarter final shows just how unused to seeing this we are. This is another get out clause for the team in possession and another blow to ground hurling as it means that players lie on the ball rather than dropping it to be played along the ground.
Finally, there is one last sly trick of the running player – the throw ahead of himself. Check out the replays of last Sunday's game and look at the first goal, where Shefflin flings the ball some five feet ahead of himself in order to give himself room, then scoops it up without breaking stride, thus securing the space he needs. In theory the player is attempting to put the ball onto his stick for a solo run, but of course if he has his opponent beaten for pace or turning, the careless fling is just as useful and easier to execute. If a player as good as Shefflin really wanted to put the ball on his hurl, he would. The fact that he did not break stride shows that the sliothar was exactly where he expected it to be. The O'Connor twins in Cork, Eoin Kelly in Tipperary and Barry Whelahan of Birr are other exponents of this trick, which is also – as long as the ball hits the ground before hitting the hurl – a foul.
No referee goes out to deliberately ignore the rule book, but much like classroom Irish and spoken Irish having subtle differences on occasion, rulebook hurling and real hurling are two slightly different games and it is the imbalance in favour of the team in possession that has led to the modern game becoming so different to what Offaly players have been indoctrinated with for so long. Trainers and players have no choice but to adapt to the game as it is played and certainly the fervent hope is that we begin to see this in Offaly at adult level very soon, but in the mean time referees would do well to remember the rule book as it is written, rather than as people have come to perceive it.