The thorny issue of policing the handpass in hurling would be made easier for officials if the tackle was more clearly defined, according to RTÉ analyst Dónal Óg Cusack.
Last weekend saw a litany of examples of referees calling foul on handpasses during various Allianz League fixtures.
League Sunday looked at a number of these, with referee John Keenan punishing Galway's Gearoid McInerney against Wexford, while Seán Stack awarded five frees for the offence in the Cork/Limerick game alone.
Officials are blowing if there is any doubt over clear contact in the striking action in the pass.
Hand pass or throw?
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) February 27, 2022
Have referees started coming down harder on hand passes in this year's League? #RTEGAA #AllianzLeagueSunday pic.twitter.com/8MXLOCG6cr
Two-time All-Ireland winner with Tipperary Conor O’Donovan has called the current handpass rule "unenforceable and unimplementable" and has described it as a malaise in the game.
O’Donovan has proposed a rule where players would not be permitted to throw and strike the sliotar with the same hand, forcing them to swap hurley in the execution of the handpass.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, Cusack welcomed the innovation given how the game has developed in recent years, but feels it doesn't adequaterly address the most pressing concern.
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"I love to see lads thinking outside the box. A player swapping hands is a hard thing to do," he said.
"If you go back to Gearoid McInerney’s handpass last Sunday, he was bottled up, players are tackling like it’s a rugby situation, I don’t know how you’d actually do that then.
"You’d want some form of Houdini to execute that skill.
"If it’s a throw, it’s a throw, it’s as simple as that, but I think referees need to err on the side of letting the game flow. Players are releasing the ball early, a la that McInerney example."
Cusack has first-hand experience of the grey area regarding the handpass.
In the 2006 All-Ireland final referee Barry Kelly penalised Cusack for an infraction of the rule - "I didn’t throw the ball at all" - and while the two-time All-Ireland winner has sympathy for officials and players alike given the speed of hand involved, the bigger issue he feels is the tackle.
Clear that up, the Cloyne man argues, and you go a long way to addressing the legality of the handpass.
It would add to the slowing down of the game and the pulling and the dragging and so on, which is not hurling in my eyes
"I think the genesis of what is causing the [handpass] issue is the way we’re tackling, the way players are being held up and being forced into different types of handpasses to releases the ball," he said.
"If we bring a layer of difficulty of executing the handpass, while it would solve the problem in certain aspects when the player is free and so on, if you had to do what Conor is proposing, it would add to the slowing down of the game and the pulling and the dragging and so on, which is not hurling in my eyes."
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