by Micil Glennon
Hurling referee Barry Kelly has said that adjudicating on the square ball rule is "impossible".
The rule has proved controversial several times this season, most recently in Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final clash between Kildare and Donegal, when Kildare's Tomás O'Connor had an apparently legal goal disallowed in normal time. The Lilywhites went on to lose the match in extra-time.
Kelly, a hurling referee who has taken charge of two All-Ireland finals, told Kildare FM that some of the situations that arise mean that it is not possible to make the correct call.
He said: "It’s a bit like the offside in soccer, in the sense that it is pretty much impossible to adjudicate on the square ball. You kind of watch two things at once that are not in the same area of vision.
"They've proved it in soccer: it is actually impossible to decide whether the player who passed the ball and the player who is onside or offside....to adjudicate on those two things – it’s actually physically impossible.
"They get it right a lot of time, they obviously get it wrong sometimes as well."
Chairman of the national referees’ committee Mick Curley has also said that, as the rule stands, officials are guessing if there was an infringement or not.
He told the Irish Independent: "The rule as it exists now means referees often have to guess really – guess where the flight of the ball is over the square and guess where the player was in relation to that flight."
