Jackie Tyrrell and Dónal Óg Cusack have both raised serious concerns about the growing number of head injuries in hurling and have called on the GAA to take action.
The issue of high tackles, head injuries and concussion in hurling came into sharp focus again at the weekend.
On Saturday night Dublin's Daire Grey caught Wexford Conor Devitt late on at Croke Park while Tipperary's Ronan Maher received only a yellow card for a similar challenge on Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon at Páirc Ui Chaoimh.
Elsewhere Offaly's Cillian Kiely had his helmet knocked off and was laid out on the ground during his county’s Joe McDonagh cup game with Kerry and had to subsequently leave the pitch.
Speaking on the Sunday Game, Tyrrell called for the GAA to step in and take a more aggressive approach to dealing with high tackles.
"There’s no doubt about it that it’s worrying to see some of these incidents," he said. "We saw Cillian Kiely for Offaly, the head was nearly taken off of him, the helmet went and I think he failed a HIA afterwards.
"Ronan Maher knew exactly what he was doing [against Darragh Fitzgibbon] and it should have been a red card.
"There have been flash points we’ve seen earlier in the round robin – we saw Seamus Flanagan as well (a high challenge on Waterford's Stephen Bennett).
"We have to understand that strength and conditioning plays a huge roll in this. Players are never more physical, they’re never more conditioned and they’re moving at a quicker pace which means the G-force they’re carrying is huge.
"Now I’m not going to sit here with a sugar-spoon and saw I haven’t contributed to the culture of that because I’ve done that in my day, I probably did worse things, so I have a role in that.
"But it’s now at a situation where the GAA have to have a look at it.
"It’s worrying to see these head incidents and guys getting belts and concussions because we’ve seen what has happened in the rugby world and I think the GAA have to look at it very seriously.
"The duty is on the player responsible to take accountability for it."
'We need to err on the side of handing out red cards' - @DonalOgC and @MrJackieTee on the issue of head high challenges in hurling #SundayGame pic.twitter.com/bwW4ksQPvO
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 7, 2023
Former Cork goalkeeper Cusack echoed Tyrrell’s comments and argues the onus has to be put on players to protect each other out on the field.
The three-time All-Ireland winner sees a worrying trend of players targeting each other with 'cheap-shots’ and has called on the association to come down hard on such incidents, with a red card the go-to punishment for high tackles.
"This gets mixed up with this ‘hard-man’ stuff as if in some way catching someone with a shoulder or an elbow when they can’t see you coming is in some way being a tough man," he said.
"That’s not being a tough man at all, that’s taking cheap shots.
"If one of our players can’t see his opponent coming and he connects with his head, it’s the duty of the player who’s tackling to protect his opponent."
Cusack is concerned that it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt if action isn't taken by the GAA.
"The danger is that there’s a boy, a girl or a man or a women getting their gear ready tomorrow and they’re going down on the field and they’re getting a cheap shot in the name of being a tough man or a tough woman," he said.
"We need to err on the side of issuing red cards rather than it being the other way and not issuing the red cards.
"Then I guarantee you that those elbows and shoulders to the head will stop because there’s very few accidents that happen at top level sport. Those players know how to control their bodies.
"Hurlers are extremely disciplined in the main. There’s 30 players out there with what is potentially a lethal weapon in their hands so the discipline of hurlers is something we should be proud of but when we see those images, we can’t be proud of that."
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