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

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.

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This has all come about when old school hurling men like Richie Bennis, Babs Keating, Justin McCarthy etc have been replaced by Kinnerk and the new modern coaches who with help from lots of other sports have broken down the game with endless analysis and statistics and picked/developed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

GAA media is very much about match reports and the likes. It just doesn't have the likes of David Conn or Jonathan Wilson.

No one is gonna talk about the wages because it will create such an absolute avalanche that could see major fines and criminal convictions if it broke. Fans know it's happening too and I don't see many of us boycotting the game or protesting at matches like the soccer do when not happy with the bosses.

The choice and sacrifice go hand in hand. Yes, the player choose to continue to play the game, but by choosing that, they are automatically making the sacrifices.

If every current intercounty player choose not to make the sacrifice, then we would have no game. The players should be appreciated for choosing to make that sacrifice and effectively dedicating their lives to the intercounty game. You cannot dismiss it as basically "shure it was their own choice - no big deal".

The problem isn't catching it but the player making the pass.

If the hurley is the only way to pass every defender will just start blocking the hurley from ever making contact. The game would be a messy joke. You would end up with Shinty.

My comment which you replied to had nothing got to do with banning the catch.

Pay attention.

The Gaa should make the sliotar heavier for starters and bring in a rule that limits the number of hand passes. Try and clamp down on illegal throwing. Also coaches should encourage more ground hurling. It's gone by the wayside nowadays.

If there was more ground hurling there would be less rucks which are a scourge on the game.

I hope every team except Limerick agrees with you and plays dumb "pull on it" hurling

But if it's not exactly the hurling played just like in your youth it's shte. Don't you understand the point of this thread.

No one here has ever seen a game of "proper" hurling "the way it's supposed to be played"