For those not aware, this year’s club hurling championships have a slight format change from the previous couple of years.
This year the top three in each group qualify directly for the quarter finals. The 4th placed team in one group plays the 5th placed team in the other, in two preliminary quarter finals, with the two winners making the quarter finals where they will meet one of the group winners.
In group B of the Pettitt’s Senior Hurling Championship, Rathnure St. Anne’s have three wins from three so far, and will likely take one of the top three places. However, it is still possible for Rathnure to finish 4th, if Ferns and Oulart-The Ballagh win both of their remaining games and Oylegate-Glenbrien get at least a win from their remaining two games.
This group looks to be so tight, particularly for that dreaded relegation place.
In group A, St Martin’s and Shelmaliers lead the way on 5 points, with Naomh Eanna and Faythe Harriers on 4 points. The strugglers so far in this group are St. Anne’s Rathangan and St Mogue’s Fethard who have both lost all three games. The average margin of defeat for Fethard has been 11 points which is a big concern for them.
This weekend’s game between St. Anne’s and Fethard will decide who ends up in the relegation final.
Overall, while there’s been some exciting close games and lots of great scores in the championship so far, some other stuff hasn’t impressed with quality. I have seen lots of sloppy hurling, partly because of the pitches being so hard. Low passes are skidding along the ground or taking awkward bounces, and high dropping passes are bouncing over players heads and also taking unexpected bounces. That points to the importance of accurate crisp passes between head and waist high for players to catch rather than having to rely on judging a bounce.
Also the tactics employed by a lot of teams at both club level and at intercounty level are making the game hard to watch at times. One example is where teams defending a puckout bring out their full forward line to the half forward line, their half forward line back to midfield and midfielders back to half back line to crowd the middle area of the field. Invariably this leads to the goalkeeper playing a one-two with the corner back before launching the ball, from around the 20 metre line rather than the edge of the small square, down into an area of the field where the defending team have a numerical advantage.
It is then returned by the defending team back up the field to where the other team has a numerical advantage. This pattern is repeating itself so often in the games I have seen so far this season.
In a similar way to how the Football Review Committee have transformed football, I believe a serious examination of the game of hurling is needed too, and it will be interesting to see the findings of the Review Committee headed by John Meyler that was established earlier this year.
Peronally, I would start by not allowing players receiving a puckout to pass it back to the goalkeeper. In fact, I would only allow the ball to be returned to the goalkeeper after there have been at least two passes between the outfield players after the puckout.
The other big change I would make is one I have mentioned before in a National League article. I would ban the handpass entirely. Or allow it only in cases where the ball is released with one hand and struck with the other, or passed directly off the hurl. These are the only two methods of handpassing a ball where there can be no argument over whether there was a clear striking action.
The really frustrating part of the handpass is when it is penalised. I am so often sitting there wondering why one was chosen as a foul when it was identical to the previous ten that weren’t penalised.
There is no doubt in my mind too that lots of the passes out of rucks and tackles are throws, particularly at intercounty level, but it is very difficult for a referee in a dense crowd of players to be sure that the ball was thrown.
Finally, in a more minor change, I would give the poor overworked groundsmen across the country a break by removing both 65 metre lines from the pitch, and use the halfway line as the new place to take a ’65’ from. The 65 metre line currently performs no other function and making a ’65’ five metres more difficult would be a good move considering the advances make in striking distance since the ’65’ was first introduced.
– By Peter Mernagh. Views expressed are those of the writer and not of Wexford GAA.
