Will O'Donoghue tiptoes around the issue and then greets it face on. Any new rule aimed at tackling cynical play or other so-called dark arts of hurling may be well intentioned, only to suggest Limerick have somehow become the masters of them all is simply out of line.
It’s now expected Central Council will bring a motion to GAA Congress later this month, via the standing playing rules committee, whereby any aggressive or cynical fouls committed in or outside the large rectangle which deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity will result in a penalty, in football or hurling.
If the offence is deemed cynical, it will result in the player being sin binned for 10 minutes, similar to the black card already used in football only. The intention would be to trial the new rules in the 2021 championship.
For O’Donoghue, who collected his second All-Ireland with Limerick in December with another stand-out performance at midfield, including a first-half point from play, the issue of cynical play does merit some attention; he’s just not sure about the new rule or indeed the easy implementation of it.
"I don't think there is a lot of cynical play in hurling," he says. "You can rattle off 10 or 12 instances, a clear goal opportunity where somebody's hurl is held back. When games are defined by such close margins, there probably is a huge argument to say, it could have been won or lost. The Leinster final last year, where Huw Lawlor (from Kilkenny) held back a Galway player's hurley (Joseph Cooney), had he scored that goal it could have been a different game, so there are huge repercussions, when a cynical foul does take place.
“But I don’t know if the frequency of it, you look at VAR in soccer, people were screaming for it for a long time, then VAR came in and everyone is screaming to get rid of VAR. You look at a good change, like HawkEye, and the advantages that has brought to the games, so it’s hard to know what the effects a black card or something like that might have on the game, and then if the guy is making a genuine attempt and gets tripped up, brings a guy down, is that a black card?
“It’s also pressure on the ref to make the call, was it cynical or wasn’t it cynical, if it happened in the first minute of an All-Ireland final, and it’s a misinterpretation by the ref, there’s a lot hanging on that too. Refs have an awful lot on their plate as it is, but I do agree a cynical foul could alter the direction of the game, and there is a reasoning why there probably should be a greater penalty that just a free in.
“I understand there may be a need for it, but trying to enforce the rule, make it applicable, I really don’t know.”
Former Limerick captain and current team selector Donal O’Grady is among those to have highlighted the need for some new ruling in or around cynical plays, although O’Donoghue takes issue with anyone who suggests Limerick themselves have become the masters of them.
“I don’t think we would be, and to be honest I didn’t pick up on that notion, or that kind of dialogue around it. I don’t think we’re a very cynical team, like I said the most blatant one of the year was probably in the Leinster final.
“But people can paint that of us, say that of us, that it’s part of our play, you can’t alter what people think or see, but I certainly wouldn’t take it as dig towards us, or that a cynical foul or black card of whatever would impact us more so than any other. I’d say if you looked at most of the foul counts from last year, most of the games we played, I don’t think we’d be up there as the most cynical team. We certainly don’t aim to be anyway.”
Almost certain of collecting a first hurling All Star later this month (all but one of the Limerick team that started their All-Ireland final win over Waterford in December were nominated, reflecting their virtually complete dominance which saw them go unbeaten for the entire year, league and championship), O’Donoghue reckons Limerick arguably saved their best performance until last.
“I suppose it was, a game where everything appeared to click, and go right. I haven’t looked at the actual statistics too closely, but it seems like a lot of our scores came, we created a lot of chances, and probably out in one of the highest tackle counts, probably retained our own puck outs, so from those kind of pillars, we probably did have our best game of the season, and it was nice to finish on that note.”
Speaking at the launch of Sportsfile’s 2020 edition of A Season of Sundays, O’Donoghue is in no hurry either to start back again for the new season: “I’m just taking the break, not really worrying about when we’re going back, or what it’s going to look like.
“We got a season in last year when it looked like we mightn’t get anything, so there will be a season, it is going to happen, and can probably assume it will resume on March 5th, so I just plan on taking the downtime, and relaxing. It’s still only six weeks from the All-Ireland, in professional sport they might get eight, 10 weeks off in the summer.
“So there’s nothing wrong with us taking a break, maybe focus on injury prevention. But the return date will come, and once it does you need to be ready.”
