Hurling- what’s gone wrong and where do we go from here.

That was my biggest negative from this years championship. The way John Keenan was treated after referreeing the game like most people want to see it reffed. It's obvious the regulators want a less physical game and that's a crying shame.

The Throwing and too many steps are still a huge factor. Walters solo for Kilkenny that led to a goal took the biscuit entirely. I think it was 10 steps from catch to hurley tap . Loads of throwing aswell. Limerick are the best at it especially around the backs. It's like they dare the ref to call it...its a big call ,an automatic score. Thats why to encourage enforcement they need to make the free for throwing indirect..

Limerick are the best team again by far. The final score was flattering to kilkenny. Kyle Hayes had gone back to prevent a goal after going 5 points up. No amount of making the ball heavier (something that's badly needed) is going to prevent a Hayes or Hegarty blowing a half back line apart.

Was the final not reffed well ?

Was the final not a proper game ?

Can't really say that the ref ruined Galway vs Limerick or KK vs Clare either so what did the GAA get so wrong ?

Are you John Keenan ?

The rules haven't evolved though. It seems to me that every now and then a ref decides to let it go and we get epic games like the Munster Final and people cant understand why refs dont do that all the time. Thats a very short sighted view for the betterment of the game.

The rules have evolved, maybe slowly, but they have evoloved.

How do you know "most" people don't want to see scores from distance?

Also, I think you need to look up the definition of "pot shot".

no i am not john Keenan surprisingly enough , the final was an excellent game lets be fair and so was the galway game , but i feel keenan let alot go in that munster final which made for an excellent game , he was given no game after that , he is a better ref then both colm loyns and paud odwyer who both got two games each after the munster final

i know some limerick supporters were not happy with him but he done a good job in that game , and this is from the losing side ..

Unsure what point you’re trying to make about frees here. What exactly do you not like about hurling frees? Is it that there’s too many or that they’re being scored from distance, or something else?

It was hard to decipher from your original post

Stop start games are on the players though, not a ref applying the rules

I was talking about this post, where it was pretty difficult to make out what you were saying:

"hes right about the frees , some games now are terrible to watch , its fine when diarmuid byrnes or tony kelly are booming it from distance , but like the stupid sweeper keeper in football with goalkeepersevery free taker in the country thinks they can do the same ,

plus in tighter pitchs like o more park of parnell park ect it just ruins a game its so stop start

I'm fine with the job he done but I don't see what he done compared to other refs that make sit a disgrace that he didn't get more .

The Munster final being a classic was nothing to do with how the game was reffed in my opinion

I never mentioned 100-metre frees. You did. And a free 100-metre free is a 100-metre free, it doesn't matter the length of the field.

Moreover, most fields predominatly used for hurling are generally around 144-5 metres in length (see here https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2022/0511/1297395-size-matters-gaa-pitch-dimensions-irk-beyond-measure/) so your small field argument doesn't stack up.

Why do you keep finishing your posts on the state of the game with a paragraph on how great you think Limerick are?

It's basically become football with sticks with the emphasis on possession.

Other than some puckouts the battles for primary possession, and all the chaos that brings, are really rare in the modern game.

Teams are keeping possession at all costs with the resultant use and abuse of the handpass, taking ball into tackle (which isn't properly defined or at least refereed), countless rucks per game etc etc.

This has all come about when old school hurling men like Richie Bennis, Babs Keating, Justin McCarthy etc have been replaced by Kinnerk and the new modern coaches who with help from lots of other sports have broken down the game with endless analysis and statistics and picked/developed players to fit into this new version of hurling.

The new version is very different ( and it in time will evolve) and I'm not sure overall is better or worse. With all the negatives listed above a fair observer would have to acknowledge and appreciate the skill levels of modern players.

Hurling questioning itself is really unusual; hurling people have always be so assured and almost arrogant about their game when you compare to any other sport particularly Gaelic Football. I was born in 1975 and other than the great Kerry team who last one an All Ireland in 1986, I can't remember a time when commentary on the sport hasn't been almost entirely negative.

I'd be careful about making too many changes, the law of unintended consequences and all that. Maybe look at reducing scoring zone through sliotar redesign and increase reward for a goal to 4 or 5 pints to encourage teams to take more chances.

Not sure I agree with everything you say here but the point about journalism is a good one. How many good national journalists do we have who are even primarily hurling focused? Enda McEvoy is one and he's very good, maybe Vincent Hogan is another but does a lot of other things. It's not a fixable problem though because hurling alone won't really pay the bills for any newspaper. It's really unfortunate that the best hurling journalist we had turned out to be a scumbag nonce too.