Kilkenny move to bin new hurling rules

The experimental rules will be abolished before round four of the National Hurling League if a Kilkenny motion to Central Council is upheld this Saturday.

Kilkenny representative John Healy will call for all trial rules to be abolished and not just the controversial yellow-card decree. This includes the touch judge's power to intervene for off-the-ball incidents and the two points now awarded for a pointed sideline cut. The heavily criticised football experiments are not included in the motion.

"Only taking hurling, we hope to withdraw all experimental rules and go back to the way we were," said Kilkenny County Board secretary Pat Dunphy.

Along with most managers, Brian Cody has come out strongly against the changes for the Walsh Cup and National League, especially when they saw the effect it was having - Kilkenny defender JJ Delaney was dismissed in his first two league outings.

The change from the initial yellow-card punishment of 10 minutes in the sinbin to the present format, where a player's game ends and he is replaced, occurred before the hurling season even began as the clamour from football managers forced the GAA to back down.

"The initial sinbin was probably more preferable than the way it currently is," continued Dunphy. "It got in very quickly in the first place, then changed before any hurling games took place as most football managers gave out during the O'Byrne Cup. We don't know of any other counties doing likewise but most managers appear in agreement."

While it is generally agreed that football needed a more stringent approach to stop the cynical element that had infiltrated the game at all levels, the overriding feeling among the hurling fraternity was their shop was in order.

The teething process that all major change requires was hindered further by the reversal mid-experiment, so if Central Council throws out the new rules then a football motion will surely follow.

As it stands Congress is expected to reject the yellow-card idea next month anyway. The message then will be loud and clear, that an in-built resistance to change exists within Gaelic games.