Fact that head-high tackles will be punished is not news
In football in recent weeks there have been faults in communication between Croke Park and managers over tweaks to the new rules and the suggestion over the weekend was that there had been a similar breakdown in hurling. A blizzard of red cards in Division One A – eight in three matches – were being attributed to a referee’s review meeting during the week, the outcome of which had leaked into the public domain without any formal statement.
In this case, though, no rules had been changed or tweaked. Did managers need to be informed that there was going to a stricter enforcement of existing rules? Six of the red cards issued in Division One A this weekend were for contact around the head or near the head, but offences of that nature have been the focus of attention for years. The failure to apply the rules in a number of high profile incidents in the previous round of fixtures was an aberration that needed to be addressed urgently.
Pat Ryan said that he had a chat with Liam Gordon before the game yesterday and praised him afterwards for being easy to deal with. In rugby there are formal channels where coaches can raise questions about how the laws are being applied, but that is a professional game, and rugby’s laws are constantly under review.
In the GAA, the contact is more informal. In conversation a few months ago Johnny Murphy – who refereed the All-Ireland final between Cork and Clare – said that managers would sometimes approach him before a game to ask if there was anything he was “looking out for.” In recent years, his answer to that question was fairly uniform.
“Just stay away from the head,” Murphy said, “and watch your handpassing. There was a time I talked to both captains before the toss. Might as well be talking to myself. The message doesn’t go back. They’re not going to go into the huddle and say, ‘Do you know what, Johnny said to me stay away from the head and he’s going to pull every hand pass.’ You might as be talking to yourself.”
It is possible that at least one of the red cards issued over the weekend will be overturned on appeal but the intolerance of high head contact will continue. — Denis Walsh
No accident that Tipperary have a spring in their step
Maybe it’s because we are so conditioned to the ambiguities of the league that occasionally, it can be attractive to identify turning points for teams buried in the comparative anonymity of spring hurling.
Tipperary were bouncing on Sunday because of the fact of defeating Kilkenny in UPMC Nowlan Park. There was context. The hosts were down to 12 after three red cards and even at full strength, nobody’s certain where they are at present.
For Tipp manager Liam Cahill, you suspect he got most from the first half before the contest became 14 against 12 when his team moved smoothly and predatorily – not shooting a wide for the first half hour – to lead by six at the break.
His comments afterwards put the outcome into another context, the significance of the opposition and venue – regardless of the opposition’s temporary difficulties.
“But look, in hindsight, we were delighted to come to Nowlan Park and pick up two points. That’s not usually the norm in Tipperary over the years, so we’ll take it.”
Although the county had actually won its most recent match at the Kilkenny venue in 2023, Cahill wasn’t wrong. That win two years ago was the first in 15 seasons, spanning fixtures from common-or-garden divisional fixtures to a league final and one championship meeting, the memorable 2013 All-Ireland qualifier.
He also addressed a recurrent reproach: that he tends to front-load his season to the extent that championship outcomes are a disappointment.
“People say Tipperary under Liam Cahill will win matches in the spring, but can they do it in the summer?”
Again, he was correct. That is what people do say, especially with the strength of the teams he has fielded – by his own account, regularly putting two-thirds of his best selection.
He explained why this makes sense with so many young players coming into the team.
“There has been nine, 10 of our players consistently playing throughout the league. I think that’s a sign, and we have no problems in saying that that was the aim – to make sure that we’d arrive ready with that number at least pinned down before the first round of the championship. “We have to prepare in the spring to make sure that we give ourselves a fighting chance in the summer. Summer is only six weeks away now, so I think Clare in two weeks' time. If a league final comes about, it’s better preparation leading into the 20th of April.” — Seán Moran
Time to draw a line on pitch markings
If you watched enough hurling over the weekend, one thing stood out. Okay, two things but presumably you’ve had your fill of red card chat by now. No, for this one, we’re going along a different line. Or, if you like, the lack of a different line.
At Nowlan Park on Sunday and at both the Gaelic Grounds and Parnell Park on Saturday night, keen-eyed viewers will have spotted that there were no 40-metre arcs on any of the pitches. This prompted plenty of knowing chuckling online, including from the excellent analyst Barry Cleary, a member of the GAA’s Games Intelligence Unit.
“How can you tell the Kilkenny County Board haven’t been following the news about new rules in Gaelic Football too closely..... #gaa” he wrote on X, above a photo from the stands in Nowlan Park. And yes, there it is, the famous green sward up by the train station in Kilkenny, serenely unsullied by any of that oul’ football carry-on.
Whatever about Nowlan Park – which didn’t even host the Kilkenny football final last year – you’d have thought the Gaelic Grounds and Parnell Park would have had plenty of cause to put down the new pitch markings by now. But the Limerick footballers have been playing their home games in Rathkeale in this league and the Dublin footballers play theirs in Croke Park. So the need hasn’t arisen yet, although it will before long.
And anyway, the hurling people are only hopping and trotting after the football folk, who have been ignoring the conventions around pitch markings for years. Go back to the last round of the league and watch Tyrone v Kerry in Pomeroy. Do you see a 65 line anywhere? No you do not. Are you likely to anytime soon?
About as likely as you are to see a 40-metre arc in Kilkenny. — Malachy Clerkin
Reshuffled league reaping rewards
With one full round of fixtures remaining and one postponed match left to be played in Division 1A of the hurling league the revised format has been a success. The flaccid nature of the hurling league, with one-sided matches and a complete lack of jeopardy for the top teams, had been an issue for years but insofar as it could be resolved, it has been.
The wisdom of removing semi-finals from the schedule has been rewarded with four teams still having a mathematical chance of reaching the final when the last round of games throw-in at 7.30 on Saturday week.
At the other end of the table, it is next to impossible for Clare and Wexford to avoid relegation given their scoring difference and, in Clare’s case, their head-to-head record against both Kilkenny and Wexford.
But one of the motivations for the new format was that none of the top teams could expect to coast through the competition without the threat of relegation, and in its first year the All-Ireland champions are facing the trap door. Even Pat Ryan said on Sunday that getting the win that would eliminate the possibility of relegation had been on their minds travelling to Ennis.
On top of that there have been a few games that didn’t feel like league games. Limerick, Clare and Cork have been involved in two each. When the best teams in the country are prepared to make an extra investment in a league game in February or March the competition gains something in credibility and attractiveness.
One of the likely permutations for the final is Cork v Tipp. Cork haven’t won the competition in 27 years and Tipp haven’t won it in 17 years. A game like that could draw a crowd of 35 or 40,000. Imagine. — Denis Walsh
Down on the up again
The last time the Down hurlers played a Division 1 league hurling fixture was in April 2007 – just a few weeks after Croke Park hosted the historic soccer international between Ireland and Wales.
Down lost heavily to Wexford in that final group game 18 years ago, confirming their fifth straight loss and after three seasons in the top-flight they dropped to Division Two. In 2012 they were relegated from Division 2A to 2B, and they remained in what was effectively the fourth tier of league hurling until securing promotion in 2020.
On Sunday, Down’s spell of almost two decades in hurling’s backwaters finally came to an end when a 0-28 to 1-23 victory over Kerry sealed promotion to Division 1B for 2026.
Ronan Sheehan’s men have won all five of their Division 2A matches this term.
“Down hurling means an awful lot to us. We’re a small hurling community but we’re a very proud one,” said the Down boss afterwards.
And on a day when Antrim beat Laois to avoid relegation from Division 1B, Down’s victory over Kerry ensured it was an encouraging afternoon for Ulster hurling.
Only two teams currently have 100 per cent winning records in this year’s hurling league – Down and London. The Exiles beat Sligo 2-20 to 0-18 over the weekend to secure promotion from Division Three. It was a weekend when some of hurling’s unheralded teams got genuine reward for years of sheer persistence, belief and endeavour. — Gordon Manning
