No news is good news after weekend launch of SMART sliotar

Despite some anecdotal querying of the new SMART sliotar, which was launched in last weekend’s opening series of Allianz Hurling League matches, no complaints were registered with the GAA authorities.

“There was no negative feedback,” according to the league’s organising committee, the CCCC.

Pat Daly of the Sliotar Work Group (SWG) went farther. “We didn’t receive any feedback,” he said on Thursday.

“These sliotars have been produced to a specific standard so they perform in line with official specification. The key determinant on ball movement is the coefficient of restitution – roughly, the effect on the ball and its velocity of being hit, which was studied by the work group.

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“That’s the key determinant in how far the balls travel but there are others, like weight and rims, which impact on that as well. What’s happening now is that the sliotars are performing in line with the GAA’s specifications.”

The purpose of the microchip in the SMART sliotar is to make the ball easily scanned with a mobile phone, which quickly and effectively authenticates the manufacturer.

At present that’s the extent of the microchip function but other more interactive features may be introduced, albeit not in the short-term.

“Technological advances may hasten the development of other uses but data like how fast and how far the ball travels would require a battery in the ball – akin to the footballs used in the World Cup, which had to be charged in advance.

“Unfortunately, the reality of putting batteries into sliotars and arranging for them to be charged is a bit down the road. It wouldn’t be possible at the moment, but with technological changes it may be done in the future and possibly will.”

The SMART sliotar was extensively trialled after its launch a year ago in the under-20 hurling championship.

At the launch, former Tipperary All-Ireland goalkeeper and SWG member Brendan Cummins spoke about the development work that had gone into the project,

He was involved in the field tests of the standardised sliotar. Between July 2021 and last March’s launch, the work group had met in 24 remote sessions for over an hour and conducted two field tests. Cummins says that the microchip in the smart ball had no identifiable effect.

“None. No difference whatsoever. When we went in first to Abbotstown, there were balls all around and I had a scorer with me. All the balls were unmarked and I had mine down in the goal. Then I tapped it on the hurley a few times, graded it on how that was.

“We had the elite players there and the club players. Everybody went through the same process and we all had our score. None of us knew what ball it was and we scored it. Then we went down on to the pitch and were in a triangle hitting the ball around.

“I think there were 16 balls there from 11 manufacturers so each ball had a letter beside them and then we scored them – and we were away from each other so we never spoke to each other.”