Galway boss Anthony Cunningham says reducing red card sanction could invite more fouling

The GAA's 2020 Hurling review committee's proposal to allow a player who would traditionally be sent off for receiving a second yellow card be substituted because "we don't have cynical fouling in hurling" has raised many eyebrows – including those of Anthony Cunningham.

Former Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy headed the 11 -person committee that revealed their 15 proposals to help improve the game yesterday. But Galway manager Cunningham said that particular rule change may just "invite more fouling".

“We’re delighted that we don’t have cynical fouling in hurling; our game is very clean but we think it’s best served 15 on 15 and we think it’s definitely worth looking at,” said Sheedy during the committee’s presentation.

But Cunningham said: “It’s not that easy. That might just invite more fouling, it mightn’t work out because definitely if you have a defender on a yellow card and now if they know they can be substituted and there’s ten minutes left, of course they’re going to take one for the team won’t they?

"If there's a few minutes left and Richie Power is running through then you're going to take him out."

“In the league semi-final this year we had a man going through and he would have scored a goal, there’s no doubt, but he was just taken down on the 21.

“If you have a smart defender it’s going to introduce cynicism in the last ten or 15 minutes of matches.”

However Sheedy said: “If there is cynicism creeping into the game, it would be on the edge of the square – and we feel the best way to address that is the one-on-one penalty.”

This is a notion supported by Limerick’s All Star defender Séamus Hickey. He feels the proposal is “a positive thing because in 2013 and 2014 a lot of these decisions about certain sendings off had a big effect on games.

“It’s no harm trialling it and I don’t think it will result in heavy cynicism. Most cynical fouls this year were a result of the penalty rule.”