Trialling of hurling rule enhancements begins

By John Harrington

The proposed rule enhancements drawn up by the GAA’s Hurling Expert Advisory Group (HEAG) will be properly road-tested for the first time this evening when UCD play Maynooth in Round 1 of the Higher Education Hurling League Division 1 at Belfield.

Some of the rule enhancements being trialled across three rounds of the HE Hurling League include the following:

• Extend the power of line umpires to provide assistance to referees
• Handpass requires a clear and definite strike with the hand
• Sliotar can be carried for maximum of six steps in the hand
• To use your arms to tie up an opponent is not permitted
• Throw-ins to start a half to be contested by one player off each team in midfield
• Puck outs must travel at least 45 metres. Minimum of three players from each team must remain between 20m and 45m lines for puck outs
• A 65m puck to be taken from the 65m line nearest your own goal
• Two points awarded for a sideline struck cleanly over the bar
• One maor foirne per team to be permitted to enter the field during breaks in play

At a media briefing in Croke Park today, HEAG Chairperson, John Meyler, outlined his hope that the trials will give his committee a better idea of what potential rule changes could improve the game.

“The analysis has been done, our recommendations have been made, and the next element of our strategy is implementation and that's where the hard work starts,” said Meyler.

“We want to see a good flow to the game. That the hurling flows from one end of the field to the other. That there's a consistency in refereeing decisions across the games. That players, coaches, and public experienced a valued game.

“There will be tactical consequences of what we do. There's going to be a ripple effect that if we bring a recommendation it will have a knock-on effect on something else and we need to be aware of that.

“If recommendations work we'll hopefully get them in. If recommendations don't work we'll bin them.

"We're here to analyse the game and see can we improve the game so in five years time, in ten years time, we have a better game of hurling. That we have a game where people will get up off their seats and say, 'Brilliant, fantastic, this is what we want, this is what we came to see'.”

A number of the rule enhancements on trial can be viewed as being intrinsically linked and as a collective designed to make the game more free-flowing.

42 per cent of rucks are caused by tackling and it’s hoped that by clamping down on spare arm tackling the frequency of such rucks can be reduced.

By increasing the steps allowed to six from four, it’s hoped that players will be able to break free from rucks into open space where they can release possession cleanly.

Throw handpasses often happen in the pressurised environment of those ruck scenarios so less rucks would hopefully mean less fouled hand-passes.

The onus is now on the player to ensure the handpass is struck with a clear and definite action of the hand and if the referee is in any doubt they will blow for a free rather than give the benefit of the doubt to the player.

A prohibition on two consecutive hand-passes should also make the handpass easier to referee.

Wexford hurler, Simon Roche, will be in action for UCD in this evening’s HE League clash with Maynooth and was in Croke Park earlier today at the media briefing.

In the main, he’s hopeful the rule enhancements will have a positive impact, though he admits some will prove ‘tricky’ for players to adapt to.

“From a player's point of view I think the handpass is going to be tricky,” he says. “In the last five or six years we've all been coached in way where everything is about possession of the ball.

“I think we'll probably see a few sloppy mistakes because after you give one handpass you have to strike so there might be a few fumbling errors from that point of view.

“I think the steps is another tricky one from a defensive point of view. There's always scrutiny as to whether lads are taking more than the four steps and with it going to six steps now you're probably giving forwards an advantage, but I think that's what people want to see.

“If you're watching from the stands you're going to want to see people taking on their opponents more and I think that will bring that more to the game.

“We're all going to have to be coached a lot over the next couple of months how to tackle again. It's important to avoid head injuries and we've seen over the last couple of years a lot of red-card incidents over a spare hand tackle and I think that has reduced the injuries from the spare hand tackle.

“I think it's up to the players to develop that skill of how to tackle. The onus is on the players to tackle properly.

“I'm looking forward to seeing the puck-outs go beyond the 45 metre line. I think we'll hopefully see a lot more fielding of the ball which has kind of gone out of the game over the last few years. I think we'll see a lot more 50-50 contests which is exciting.”

Chris Mooney, who will referee the UCD v Maynooth match this evening, was also in Croke Park at today’s media briefing.

One of the rules being trialled empowers line umpires to act as assistant referees, with each line umpire patrolling from the endline to the half-way line on alternate sides of the pitch.

And whilst he raised the possibility that might present some logistical challenges for the referees in terms of where they position themselves on the pitch to make sure there are no ‘blind-spots’, he’s confident that match officials will fill the HEAG brief of working as a ‘team of officials’.

“It's important to point out that we already work extremely well together,” said Mooney. "Anyone that has been privy to hearing our conversations during a match would be aware of that. We do help each other.

“There are certain circumstances where we are restricted in rule and these changes will help in so far as line umpires will potentially now be a bit more proactive in giving you feedback in the moment as opposed to in a break in play and only when the referee has sought that additional information.

“You have to remember in other sports that assistant referees are just assistant referees and linesmen are just linesmen. Whereas I could be a referee today and a line umpire tomorrow so our brain is already switched on to think like a referee while we're also thinking like a line umpire.”

At today's media briefing, GAA Head of Hurling, William Maher, expressed his confidence that the upcoming trials will give the HEAG a clearer picture of what steps might be taken to improve the game of hurling.

“The overall message is very much to get away from opinion and subjectivity and instead try to get into a process where hurling has a baseline,” said Maher.

“We know where that baseline is thanks to the excellent work of the Games Intelligence Unit, so we'll have an idea of what worked in these trials or what did not and so what we want to implement.

“It's all very process driven. We want to get away from subjectivity because everyone has an opinion on something we all love which is hurling so it's just important that we have a very clear path and process to get that game to be even better than it is at the moment.”

Click here to read the Hurling Expert Advisory Group's interim report.