GAA annual congress: Motion on tightening hurling handpass defeated

Tipperary’s motion to tighten the rules on hurling’s handpass has been defeated at Saturday’s GAA annual congress in Donegal. Former county player and All-Ireland winner Conor O’Donovan presented a detailed case on how the current rule is impossible to enforce and facilitates throwing the ball.

His solution, to prohibit using the hand holding the ball to make the pass, was opposed by two speakers from two important committees and publicly supported by only one county, Cork.

The vote went against the proposal by 67.6 per cent to 32.4.

O’Donovan laid out the case in favour of his reform.

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“The sport of hurling has become more possession-based, primarily through its range of handpassing skills. The type of handpass that is most used by players is where the ball is offloaded directly from the same hand that is holding it. However, in doing so, players are a lot more frequently engaging in the act of throwing the ball, which is seldom penalised by referees.

“One of the key reasons why referees do not penalise it is because they physically cannot see how the ball was released by the player so they give the benefit of the doubt to the player and, while unintended, this facilitates more and more instances of players throwing the ball.

“Conversely, on occasions it does happen that referees penalise players for throwing the ball when in fact the players have handpasses it correctly.

“It was well summed up by hurling analyst Liam Sheedy on RTÉ’s The Sunday Game on the night of April 17th, 2022 ... when he said that the referees are being asked to do the impossible in trying to decide on it.”

He also cited a range of media reports and opinions, casting doubt on the permissibility of many handpasses and echoing the point that these technical fouls were going unpunished.

O’Donovan’s proposed solution had been trialled in a third-level competition and led to a steep rise in the ratio of stick passing to handpassing.

“Until it’s tried, we’ll never know if it works. Indeed, as already outlined, the Freshers hurling trial in late 2023 demonstrates that amended Rule 4.2 (b) does work. Whether you are a current player, former player, coach, team manager, administrator or supporter, we should all agree that both the integrity and the skills of the game of hurling must be preserved above all else, in order to maintain its stature as the greatest field game in the world.”

Opposing, Terry Reilly, chair of the Hurling Development Committee said: “We as committee discussed this on two occasions and are strongly against the introduction of this rule.”

He said that the game “would be slowed down” and that a skill “would be significantly affected”. He urged that referees be allowed to police the situation under the current rule.

Liam Keane, chair of the Standing Committee on Playing Rules, said that it was the SCPR’s role “to evaluate playing rule motions”. Their view was that the proposal, “would slow down the game and penalise a skill”.

Pat Horgan, Cork chair, referred to previous speakers describing the handpass as a skill. “Throwing ball in not a skill. Surely this needs to be trialled and given a fair trial.”

Michael Duignan acknowledged that O’Donovan “is very passionate about this” but described the proposal as unworkable given the speed and crowding of the modern game. “There are balls being thrown but implementation is completely impractical in the modern game.”

The motion from Kilkenny club Danesfort to allow clubs discretion in the renting out of ancillary facilities received 53 per cent support but failed to reach the 60 per cent weighted majority threshold.