Rating hurlers in the All-Ireland final

Sir, – I was greatly surprised and dismayed by the decision of your sports writers to publish a performance rating for each of the players in Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final. (Sports Monday, Page 10 & 11, July 20th).

While this practice may be justified for Irish rugby and soccer internationals, where players are professional and paid to reach a high level of performance, our hurlers are amateurs who make huge sacrifices to represent as best they can their counties and communities. As GAA president Jarlaith Burns wrote in Sunday’s match programme, “as those who play our games are unpaid, uncontracted and under no professional obligation, we must be careful about what we ask of them”.

Each and every one of the players on Sunday gave of their best. And it is little short of disgraceful that self-appointed judges in the press box should think it appropriate to allocate marks out of 10 to individual players, effectively allocating responsibility to them for what in reality was a team loss.

Hopefully we will not see a repeat of this totally inappropriate player rating after this Sunday’s Football Final. – Yours etc,