The handpass and hurling are currently not a match made in heaven, from club level right up to inter-county, with the common phrase of ‘throw the ball’ being heard across the country.
This weekend's All-Ireland semifinals saw referees whistling for hand pass fouls at a number of key times.
On the Sunday Game last night, Donal Óg Cusack spoke out about the way the rule was officiated. It comes amid a new rule from two-time All-Ireland winner with Tipperary Conor O’Donovan and his club Nenagh that states that “Nenagh Éire Óg GAA Club proposes the introduction of an additional Technical Foul - Rule 4.2 (c) which will state that it is a foul to either handpass the ball or palm the ball directly from the same hand that is holding the ball.”
While many have complained in the past about players getting away with throwing the ball, a number of clear handpasses were whistled as fouls at Croke Park this weekend.
Some perfectly good handpasses were blown as frees this weekend as referees struggle to tell difference between slick handpass motion and throws.
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“A lot of people have been talking about it,” Cusack said.
"You would wonder, with some of the new proposals, how the ball is going to be handpassed or the proposal to be handpassed; you can see that Gillane had clear separation.
For the disallowed goal, it was a brilliant piece of skill from Connelly. What do you expect him to do there? Stop and kick it? Do we want more kicking in the game?
We saw a lot of those over the weekend, and it would make you wonder where that noise is coming from into the referee’s ears when they make decisions like this...
You would wonder, in terms of the people making these decisions, look at the way it evolved over the years. Cathal O’Neill was able to keep the flow going through the evolution of the modern handpass. Before any decision or any thought of a decision around the hand-pass, you need to get the top, top players involved. You need to acknowledge their skill set and the positive impact of the hand-passes evolution on our game."
Shane Dowling has a simple solution: if in doubt, don’t blow it. This approach would help big time.
“I have a very simple slogan: if you can't see it, don't blow it, and what annoys me about referees is their guessing is as simple as that.”
If the GAA continues to mess around with the handpass rule, they have the potential to ruin the spectacle of the game, and we won't see a classic like we saw between Cork and Limerick.
