Tommy Walsh of Kilkenny is pulled back by Tom Morrissey of Limerick during the 2022 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kilkenny and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin.
Martin Fogarty believes that cynical fouling remains a blight on hurling.
The former GAA National Hurling Development Manager highlighted in a GAA.ie article last year just how prevalent fouls such as pulling back an opponent, fouling an opponent’s hurley, and pinning or slapping an opponent’s arm have become in the game.
That article was written in response to the criticism that referees were getting from some quarters for actually enforcing the rules of the game to clamp down on such cynical fouling.
Fast forward 18 months and Fogarty is adamant that “pulling and dragging is still a cancer on the game of hurling.”
According to the Kilkenny native, players are being coached to foul because too often they are getting away with it.
“Pulling, dragging, slapping, holding and pinning of arms have gone to the bad and I have no doubt that they are being coached into even young players,” says Fogarty.
“This unpunished fouling leads to frustration and is a cancer on the game.
“I attended an under 21 game a few weeks ago and without watching too closely noted at least twenty incidents of holding or pulling that went unpunished. Thankfully on this occasion nobody reacted in an unsavoury manner as it wasn’t a close game.”
Aaron Gillane of Limerick is pulled back by Paddy Deegan, left, and Huw Lawlor of Kilkenny during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kilkenny and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin.
Fogarty takes major issue with how teams are now coached to ‘tackle’ by swarming an opposition player and preventing him from playing the ball by means that shouldn’t be allowed in the game.
“My understanding of the game has always been that a player in possession must be allowed to play the ball,” says Fogarty.
“To prevent him doing so other than by a hook is a foul. That to me is fairly simple and clear. If an opponent has the ball you must allow him to play it by striking or hand passing. Your task then is to block the ball if you haven’t hooked him.
“To pull, hold, slap, or pin his arm to prevent him releasing the ball should be blown immediately as nine times out of ten the ball falls to the ground and creates another cancer in the game – the modern ‘ruck’.
“To slap, hold or tug an opponent’s catching arm as he attempts to rise a ball is a blatant free and is leading to a huge amount of aggression by way of frustration.
“Totally surrounding or swarming a player and preventing him from moving or releasing the ball should be blown but what usually happens is the poor devil in possession is blown for over carrying.
“This type of fouling is really affecting the young, light hurler and is more prominent at this time of year with the pitches heavy where players are just dragged all over the place.
"Blowing such infringements is often looked upon as slowing down the game but nothing could be further from the truth. While they may appear innocuous, pulling or clamping an arm, slapping a hand, holding a hurl are blatant frees that severely affect the flow of a game.
“This practice is really favouring the current crazy obsession of players and coaches with bulking up as opposed to developing skill and speed.
“But what choice have players but to bulk up and what choice have coaches other than to pick the biggest strongest players because if pulling, dragging and holding are allowed then they need players that can withstand that type of game. In essence they need more ‘rugby type’ players which is a disaster for hurling."
Players contest possession during the 2021 Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Dublin and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin.
Fogarty is dismayed by how often throw-ins that are often designed to break up a ruck for possession simply lead to another one. He’s proposing a novel approach to officiating a throw-in he believes might help prevent so many rucks for possession.
“This has bothered me for a long time and I have asked many people to suggest a solution to it,” he says. “It is a disaster and lends itself to mayhem on some occasions and rucks on most occasions.
“As far as I am aware, there are supposed to be just two players in for a throw ball during play with the other players retreating fifteen metres. Referees can achieve the fifteen metres at the commencement of both halves but it’s very difficult to do so during the game itself. It needs to be sorted though.
“In this year’s Kilkenny Senior final I counted on one occasion twelve players in the environs of a throw in. In the Waterford final which was played in atrocious conditions I counted no fewer than sixteen players in the area all jostling and trying to get in on the act. The modern term is ‘winning the dirty ball’.
“I have racked my brain for years for a solution to this problem. The best I can come up with would be that the nearest linesman to the throw ball enters the field and drops a marker 15 metres either side of the throw.
“If a player encroaches before the ball is thrown he concedes an indirect free. The linesman can call the infraction. People will say that will slow down the game further but I disagree.
“Nothing slows the game down more than rucks. There will not be linesmen at many games. That is not a reason to disregard the suggestion. If the problem can be solved or improved for even some games then that is better than solving it for no game.
"Linesmen, when present, help to keep players outside the ‘D’ for penalties and behind the ’65 for commencement of each half so it is the same concept.”
Referee Paud O'Dwyer throws in the ball between Mark Grogan of Kilmacud Crokes and Adrian Mullen of Shamrocks Ballyhale during the AIB Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Club Championship Final match between Kilmacud Crokes of Dublin and Shamrocks Ballyhale of Kilkenny at Croke Park in Dublin.
Fogarty believes the incidence of cynical fouling will be reduced if the advantage rule is tweaked to give players more than a five-second advantage after being fouled and then the free always awarded if an advantage doesn’t accrue.
“The bottom line is that when foul has been committed it must be punished,” says Fogarty
“The default or basic minimum has to be a free, if not then players will take their chance, continue to foul and often get away with it. Obviously if there is a possible goal scoring opportunity a player will chance the foul to maybe concede a point but avoid a goal.
“Allowing play to continue with the player fouled missing a score or a player to whom he might pass the ball missing a score is no advantage and favours the player that committed the foul. It should never pay to foul so in such an instance where no advantage accrued the referee should always revert and award the free.
“The free has to be the minimum and has to be the same concept as used in rugby. Also, five seconds is not enough. I would allow to the end of that ‘play’. If forced to put time on it I would allow ten seconds.”
The new penalties for cynical fouls in hurling that were ratified by GAA Annual Congress in 2021 have had a positive impact.
Disruptive fouls (deliberate pulling down of an opponent, deliberate tripping, and the careless use of the hurley) were down to 0.4 per game in the 2022 All-Ireland SHC compared to the average of 1.4 in 2020.
Fouls inside the ‘goal scoring zone’ continued to decrease in 2022. 10% of total fouls occurred inside this zone in 2022 which is the lowest on record.
Danny Sutcliffe of Dublin is fouled by Darragh Corcoran of Kilkenny during the 2021 Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group B Round 1 match between Dublin and Kilkenny at Parnell Park in Dublin.
Clearly, the penalty deterrent for cynical fouls in the scoring zone drafted is having a positive impact here, but Fogarty would go even further by punishing cynical fouls further out the field.
“If a player is pulled down on purpose when there is a goal scoring opportunity then we must give the injured party a goal scoring opportunity which is a penalty – simple and straightforward,” he says. "I would leave it at that, a penalty, no card, unless of course there is violence in denying the goal scoring opportunity.
“Who decides what a goal scoring opportunity is? Well, quite simply, the player who commits the foul decides. That’s why he committed the foul in the first place!
“Why would you drag down an opponent? Because you think there is a goal on. You will not do it just to save a point so that gives rise to the question of how far out from goal should the rule apply.
“I would suggest that if a player is pulled down inside the 45, even if it’s out by the side-line, that a penalty be awarded. You will not drag an opponent down even on the side-line unless you think there is a danger of conceding a goal.
“I also think there’s serious merit in discussing the possibility of awarding a ‘penalty goal’ for cynical foul committed inside the large parallelogram. If a player is denied a goal unfairly there should be serious repercussions. The black card will not solve it as these infractions often happen in the last five minutes of a game.
“We have seen several examples of this cynical play, dragging players down, tugging and holding arms, et cetera, in the latter stages of both this year’s and last year’s All-Ireland Club series.
“Fouling is like gambling. A player weighs up the possible gains if he gets away with it and the consequences if he doesn’t. Then he looks at the odds. If the odds are that the referee will not penalise him then there is only one outcome - he will foul.”
