John Fogarty
NEWS that Tommy Walsh went off injured against Waterford was met with derision and disbelief among the press corps in Parnell Park yesterday. “Tommy Walsh doesn’t do injuries,” said one. “Tommy Walsh doesn’t do substitutes,” said another.
There is solid ground for such statements. Since 2004, Walsh has only been replaced once in the championship – in the 2007 Leinster final against Wexford when James Ryall came on for him in the 45th minute. His league appearances would read something similar.
Walsh was indeed forced to retire from the game against Waterford just before half-time after picking up a nasty injury to his right shoulder. Scans will reveal the extent of the damage to his A/C joint but the hope for all genuine hurling fans is his lay-off is as short as possible.
The chink in Walsh’s all but impervious armour is a perfect example of how even the toughest players are dropping like flies in hurling right now.
There will be those who argue it’s just coincidental so many hurlers have picked up injuries in recent weeks but the following list begs to be studied, not dismissed – Tipperary: Eoin Kelly (finger), Brendan Maher (ankle),Paddy Stapleton (ribs); Waterford: Maurice Shanahan (finger), Liam Lawlor (knee), Noel Connors (ankle); Galway: David Collins (ankle), Ger Mahon (ankle); Dublin: Stephen Hiney (knee), Conor McCormack (leg); Kilkenny: Walsh (shoulder), JJ Delaney (hamstring); Cork: Conor Lehane (knee); Offaly: Shane Dooley (ear), Daniel Currams (leg).
There are plenty more. And let’s not forget the long-term casualties. Hurling is a poorer game without names like Canning, Hayes, Callanan, Lawlor, Shefflin and Tennyson.
For Tipperary, it’s got to a point where they’re almost head-counting who they can pick. “The injuries are piling up,” said the county’s frustrated manager Declan Ryan yesterday about the dwindling amount of players he has at his disposal.
Maher’s injury was incurred away from the hurling field but the vast majority of the rest mentioned above have been picked up in games. Not training, not in the gym, but in action.
So if this spat of injuries isn’t just down to chance what are the reasons?
There are a couple.
Hurling is becoming more and more of a game that is impossible to officiate properly. As a result, there are some referees who adopt a casual approach to tackling and players are adapting accordingly.
Such laissez-faire refereeing may contribute to the flow of the game but it is sending out the wrong impression to players who will take liberties with the rules of the game if there’s an advantage to be had.
On Sunday, Diarmuid Kirwan gave Galway five frees in the entire 75 minutes of hurling in Parnell Park, handing them their one and only free of the second-half in the 63rd minute.
Working at the game in Dublin and watching the highlights from the Cork-Tipperary and Kilkenny-Waterford games, it was striking to see how many players' helmets had become loosened after tussling with opponents.
Tampering with the straps of a marker's helmets is one of the dark arts in hurling and an ugly by-product of the mandatory wearing of them in the game. Aimed at disorientating a player, it might be sinister but is ultra-effective yet is rarely picked up by referees.
Give players an inch like that and they’ll snatch the proverbial mile.
But then this is also a game where throwing a hurley in the direction of an opponent is a yellow card. Such a desperate and cowardly act should be a red card offence.
As hurling advances further and further as a game, the adjudicating of its rules has remained static. With the ball being transferred as quickly as never before, referees are being asked to make precisely accurate decisions on tackles from sometimes 60 to 70 yards away. That is unfair on them and the players.
Whatever about football, there is most definitely an argument for the introduction of a second referee in hurling. Australian Rules has shown just how effective the two official policy can be. And theirs is a slower game.
The other explanation for the plethora of injuries is the lack of time managers have with their players to strengthen and condition them properly for the demands placed on them from the start of the league.
The month of January is not substantial enough to ensure they are right. Whether it is pre-season games like the Walsh Cup or the Waterford Crystal Trophy, there are always distractions and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say the strength and conditioning programmes are not only condensed but also rushed.
That’s no fault of the managers but the two-month inter-county training ban certainly impinges on getting their players right.
With the GAA’s medical, scientific and welfare committee and the GPA looking at recommending the introduction of a six to eight-week pre-season window before Christmas, players would be in a much safer position to take on the rigours of the season.
Of course, there will be those who say hurling’s the real man’s game. Injuries are collateral damage. Build a bridge, move on. But to suggest that would be doing the great game a disservice.
Hurling people have rightly criticised GAA experimental rule changes in the past which have lumped measures aimed at solving football’s ailments onto their game. The one-size-fits-all approach rarely works.
The more traditional of the two codes, hurling is also more cliquey and conservative and as a result its protagonists are adverse to change.
This writer isn’t suggesting anything should be done with the game per se. Hurling is an art-form that shouldn’t and doesn’t need to be sanitised.
A second referee wouldn’t damage the game. He would only do it justice.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/9zNp5U7ES9Q/post.aspx
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