Kelly calls for rule change to tackle throw ball in hurling

Former All-Ireland hurling final referee Barry Kelly has said it's time for the GAA to solve the throw-ball issue in hurling.

The Mullingar man took charge of four All-Ireland finals in a distinguished inter county career and remains a prominent referee on the club scene in hurling and football. It’s the failings in the small ball game that are his focus nowadays and he’d very much welcome a change in rule so that referees can deal effectively with the throw ball in hurling.

He notes that hand-passing has now become a dominant feature of the game.

"The handpass itself was not a big factor when it was down at 10 or 15 per game," Kelly says. "But now it is an intrinsic part of a team’s make-up and weaponry.

"The rule calls for a clear strike of the ball with the hand but in fact it has just become a release. And if you actually watch club or county teams in warm-ups, they make no attempt to even try to strike."

Kelly feels there will be strong support for a Nenagh Éire Óg motion at the GAA Congress, calling for an amendment in the handpass rule.

The motion, proposed by two-time All-Ireland winning full-back, Conor O’Donovan, states that it will be a foul "to either handpass the ball or palm the ball directly from the same hand that is holding the ball."

Under the proposed Nenagh Éire Óg motion, when hand-passing, players would have three options. They can strike the sliotar with a) the non-holding hand or b) with the original holding hand after bouncing the ball off the hurl, or c) with the original non-holding hand after bouncing the ball off the hurl.

It is a technical foul to intentionally drop the hurl.

"At the moment there are 100 handpasses a game, three-quarters are fouls and they are going unpunished," Kelly observes.

"It’s difficult to clamp down on them all but Conor’s motion seeks to change the handpass completely and it was trialled at third level recently with the stats making really interesting reading.

"In an inter-county game last summer there was one handpass for every one-and-a-half hurl passes.

"But in third level recently – with the proposed alternative handpass in trial - we had 170 stick passes and just 21 handpasses. The trial rule change meant teams had to change their style of play and it had an effect on the game."

Kelly feels that even if the motion doesn’t get the necessary support this time around – which he hopes it will - it will bring about a greater level of thought around the area of the handpass.

"We’ve just become accepting of it," he says. "And if a ref blows three or four per game, the crowd get on to him. It’s not fair on refs, especially the younger and newer ones.

"The other stat is that 95% of handpasses are retained by a team so hurling is very much a possession game. I know we change but hurling was never meant to be a game all about possession.

"Football is gone so possession based that people have switched off looking at games in droves. The possession game is not a good spectacle.

"I think if the rule did change and Conor’s motion came in, it would make it easier on referees. There would be no doubt about the ability to make a clear strike. At the moment we are asking refs to do a job that is impossible."