Jackie Tyrrell has called on the GAA to make a serious statement in relation to non-playing participants from getting involved following the controversy surrounding Sunday's Munster championship match between Limerick and Waterford.
Limerick’s Gearoid Hegarty appeared to be struck in the chest by a member of the Waterford backroom team following an incident involving the towering forward and Conor Gleeson.
And former Kilkenny star Tyrell believes that the GAA now need to take immediate action regarding the incident to ensure that similar scenes are not replicated in this year’s championship.
"What was going through his head? It was madness," said Tyrrell, speaking on this week’s RTÉ Sport GAA Podcast.
"What he was doing? Coming down and hitting Gearoid Hegarty in the stomach, there is no place in the game for that and he should get a hefty ban, and deserved.
"This is something that the GAA needs to come down on and come down hard. If this is not stamped out of the game, it is not going to be good.
"We have venues around the place where it is tight on sidelines, you think of Ennis, you think of Wexford Park, it is tight enough down there and if you have bodies flying into each other, flashpoints on the sideline and managers going mental on the sideline trying to get the advantage, it is going to have to be really well policed.
"Sending a message out from the GAA to this character has to be done to make sure that guys know they can’t breach the line and carry on like this as it was crazy what he was at."
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Limerick, of course, are looking to secure their fourth All-Ireland title in a row, and while Tyrrell felt that it was a below-par performance from John Kiely’s men, who secured a narrow 1-18 to 0-19 win against the Deise, he added that it was the sign of a great team who can win without playing their best hurling.
"Limerick were probably average at best, considering the heights that they have scaled," said Tyrrell.
"I was looking at their numbers and I wouldn’t say that they had such a low shot count in so long, their score count was down and you’d wonder how much the Declan Hannon [early substitution] threw them and they had to readjust.
"Some of their key men were very well marshalled, you think of Cian Lynch and Gearoid Hegarty, and I think that Waterford had a really good gameplan around puckouts on both sides of it, how they pushed up and engaged with some of their key men and how they manfully defended that middle third.
"[Waterford manager] Davy [Fitzgerald] did mention the middle third and said that they need to be in the game after 20 minutes, and they had a couple of different ways at getting at this Limerick team, they ran at them and went long and direct at them.
"Essentially, Limerick won and they showed composure in the last ten minutes. Winning dirty and winning when you are not playing well is such a trait of outstanding teams.
"And I thought their defence was outstanding and it won the game for them."
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