The project to standardise sliotars is nearly 20 years old. At Thursday's launch of the smart sliotar, which is the culmination of that work, GAA president Larry McCarthy acknowledged the role played in the long evolution of the project by Pat Daly, the association's director of games development and research, and Kieran Moran, professor of biomechanics at DCU.
Both were appointed to the sliotar work group, chaired by Kilkenny’s Ned Quinn, which McCarthy appointed last year on taking office.
The microchipped ball is to facilitate this standardisation by making official sliotars easily verified by a mobile phone app. According to Professor Moran, it is the first time any sports organisation globally has used technology for “traceability” in this way.
It will be trialled in this year’s All-Ireland under-20 hurling championship and all going well, is to be introduced at all other intercounty championship levels including senior in 2023.
In due course, clubs may follow but in the meantime they too will be bound by the new standard, which will be enforced by monitoring official suppliers and conducting spot checks. Just two companies are participating in the trial, O’Neill’s and PDMR (Greenfields), but others are expected to manufacture the sliotar once it is approved.
For the trial period, they will supply unbranded balls, which will be distributed from two ‘sliotar bins’ and not as had been the case from a bag that a goalkeeper keeps in the net.
Every feature of the ball, from dimensions to the coefficient of restitution - roughly, the effect on the ball and its velocity of being hit - was studied by the work group.
For instance the yellow sliotar was chosen after a detailed presentation by Valerie Kennelly, an optometrist and leading expert on sports vision, simply because the science demonstrated that it was easier to see. That’s why tennis introduced yellow balls 50 years ago and why they are preferred for televised sport.
The chip, developed by DMF Systems, authenticates that the sliotar conforms to strict specifications, accepted into the GAA’s rule book at February’s annual congress.
Other reasons for authenticating are, according to the GAA’s press release:
“ . . . to ensure that approved sliotar suppliers adhere to the sliotar specification set out in the GAA Official Guide and that approved sliotars perform on a consistent basis.
“In an effective regulatory context, it seeks to address illegal use of the official GAA logo and meets ethical production and supply chain practices as determined by the World Federation of the Sports Goods Industry (WFSGI).”
The latter point was referenced by McCarthy.
“I think it’s a work in progress in terms of making sure we have integrity in the sliotar, integrity in our equipment, and, perhaps most importantly, in our manufacturing systems - that we’re not using child labour or anything around the world. That would be incorrect because most of them come from Sailkot in Pakistan.”
Sliotar Work Group: Ned Quinn (Kilkenny) Chair, Louise Conlon (Camogie Association Technical Development and Participation Manager), Brendan Cummins (Tipperary), Eoin McDonagh (Galway), Bob Ryan (Cork), Terry Reilly (Antrim), Declan Fitzgerald (DMF Technology), Professor Kieran Moran (DCU), Pat Daly (Croke Park).
