“IT’S SOMETHING THAT’S been rumbling on, every time I sit down to do an interview. If I had an easy solution I’d come up with it.”
You get the impression that Anthony Nash has had his fill of discussing the penalty rule, which has been one of hurling’s hot topics for the past 18 months.
The Cork goalkeeper addressed the issue again at yesterday’s launch of the Allianz Hurling League, as he prepares to lead his county into the 2015 season as captain for the first time.
A one-on-one penalty rule, as proposed by the Hurling 2020 Committee, was trialled during the pre-season competitions, but the one-on-three rule which was used for the majority of last year’s championship will return for the league.
Nash says he’s open-minded about the Hurling 2020 Committee’s suggestion, but the Kanturk man believes a one-on-three rule would function well — if a new 18-metre line were to be introduced, outside of which the ball would have to be struck.
An 18-metre penalty was one of several options tested at a session organised by the committee in Thurles last October, which was attended by several inter-country players including Nash, Joe Canning and Shane Dowling.
“I know Liam Sheedy and the 2020 Committee put a lot of effort into it and I had first-hand contact with it; we tried a few things. Look, if it works – brilliant; if not, I’m still a believer in the one-on-three with about maybe an 18-metre line that most fellas were doing beforehand,” said Nash.
“There are options. If the one-on-one works, excellent; whatever’s better for hurling. If you look at one-on-one it probably favours an attacker a bit more and is that what they’re looking for? Maybe rightly so.
“A penalty’s a penalty, but why didn’t they go for the 18-metre line? Maybe it’s more administration in having to organise a line and make sure you don’t pass that line. But you still can’t pass the line at the 21 from a one-on-one so I just hope it works, whatever they decide.”
Nash was under the impression that the trial period for the new one-on-one proposal was being extended to the league when he spoke to the media at Croke Park yesterday, but appeared disappointed when he learned that won’t be the case.
“I think they should have prolonged it,” he said. “Sure, how many were given, really? We didn’t face one with Cork in the Waterford Crystal. I faced one in the Canon O’Brien [pre-season game against UCC] and it was scored.
“I still think the 18-yard line is a good idea because if you look at what most fellas are doing, if any of them are hitting a ball from 18 yards hard it’s a goal, so it’s still benefiting the team. That’s what I would have liked but I didn’t realise it [the trial] wasn’t going to the league.”
Nash added that the current three-on-one rule, which was introduced by Central Council last June, is an unlikely long-term solution.
“It was proven last year that rule didn’t work. If they go back to it in the championship we’re going to be back discussing it again next year, so they better come up with a solution sooner rather than later.”
First published at 6.30am
Players always stole a few yards but Nash took it to extremes. If someone did it to Cork and struck a sliotar at him him from 14 yards which struck him in the neck or groin he’d be the first person moaning about how dangerous it was. Delighted Stephen O’Keeffe mugged him off.
Cork have a history of trying to gain an advantage in this department as well. It’s not so long ago that O’Sullivan tried to stuff the Cummins sliothar up his jumper so he could swap it with the designated ball for a penalty.
“Took it to the extreme”, no he was just the best at doing it. Your telling me if other players were able to do it as well as he could they wouldn’t.
Then Davy complaining about fellas getting hit in the neck and he didn’t even wear a helmet. Sure you could get hit the neck at any point in the game.. what are they going to do next, ban shooting from inside the square..
I think you’ll find that at that time there was no designated sliothar. That may have changed now but at the time that wasnt breaking the rules. Donal Og went to the effort of asking referees about it. Watch any old game and you will often see keepers taking sliothars out of a bag in their goal.
Maybe if he adhered to the original ruling then we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Back to the original with the keeper not allowed to progress beyond the 14 yard line and the defence not allowed off the goal line is definitely the best option.
He didn’t break the original ruling in any way, that’s why the ruling needed changing
After 100 years of the GAA he chose to interpret the rules in a manner that gave him an additional advantage. This created the issue.
Not happy with this he had the absolute gall to object to the opposition, namely the Waterford goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe, did the same in order to counteract his measures. This created the anomaly.
The bottom line is that he has one of the hardest shots in the game and if he had been content to strike the ball before the 14 yard line then this mess wouldn’t be facing the association today.
He wasn’t the first person to lift the ball high.
It should be one on one though. A penalty should be an advantage to the attacking team
He was the first one to bring the ball in well beyond the 14 yard line.
I agree the advantage should be with the attacking team and it was with the old rule. Nash taking an additional advantage has led to the current situation where it’s more difficult for the attacking team to convert the awarded penalty.
Additionally it should be noted that this does not solely apply to penalties. In the 2013 All Ireland final there were a number of frees, not penalties that he threw forward to inside the 14 yard as well.
We might be getting to a point where the spray can is needed and a limit of a 7-yard gain is applied to all hurling frees.