All-Ireland final referee Brian Gavin is adamant that hurling has no need for a black card.
The extra card was introduced to curb cynical fouls and bad behaviour in 2014 but has so far been restricted to the bigger-ball game.
"I think hurling was never in as strong a position as it is now," he told RTÉ Sport.
"Probably Championship this year was a little bit slow getting going (but) we had the most memorable games of the last few years in the semi-final and final.
"We had a problem in hurling maybe three years ago when there were a lot of wild pulls going unpunished. Pat McEnaney (then referees' chief) and then Sean (Walsh, McEnaney's successor) came in and we tidied it up.
"We saw very few red-cards this year in the hurling. Players have tidied up because they were starting to get punished for the loose hurling.
"It's very seldom you hear moaning or whingeing in hurling. It's so fast a game, it's just the greatest game nearly in the world from my perspective. I wouldn't change anything about it at the moment anyway."
The Offaly man, who didn't brandish a single card during Tipperary's victory over Kilkenny in September, his fourth decider in charge, thinks that the speed of hurling means the players have less time to clash off the ball - with the result that they show more respect for each other.
"I think players in hurling respect each other so much, maybe compared to football"
"I think players in hurling respect each other so much, maybe compared to football a little bit," he said.
"I could be wrong in saying that but the respect that hurlers have for each other is just unreal. They just get on with the job in hand.
"Football is a lot of hand-passing, it's a lot of in-your-face type of stuff whereas hurling you nearly haven't time. The ball is moving so fast.
"In football you could be corner-forward v corner-back, the ball mightn't arrive to you for eight or nine minutes, there can be verbals going on. Whereas hurling it's end to end stuff, there's not as much contact.
"I suppose if football ever goes back to the kicking days, that'll speed up again. But at the moment football is probably in your face, you're marking a fella, you're tugging at his jersey, you're beside him the whole time.
"That probably leads to altercations as the match wears on."
