FORMER NATIONAL HURLING Coordinator Paudie Butler has claimed it is ‘inevitable’ that the rules regarding penalty taking will be changed to ensure a face off between penalty takers and goalkeepers.
Tipperary’s failure to convert either of their two penalties in Sunday’s All-Ireland final has drawn criticism of the decision to clamp down on strikes inside the 20 metre line.
In practice, it has handed the advantage to defending teams with statistics showing that of the 10 penalties awarded since the rule enforcement early in this year’s Championship, the last seven haven’t resulted in direct goals.
It’s a stat that clearly favours the defending team and Butler, a Tipp native currently working as a coach with Wexford, believes the answer is to reduce the number of players on the goal line from three to one.
“It’s going to evolve to one-on-one,” maintained Butler. “Safety has to come first, the goalkeeper must be safe. Striking the ball on the 14 yard line had become dangerous with the ball being struck phenomenally hard and at an unprecedented speed.
“So it was decided, ‘we’ll bring it out’ and defenders are now seeing that the chances of scoring are down to 20 per cent. So defenders are saying, ‘we’ll take our chances’. In reality, that figure should have been 80 per cent.
“I also think one-on-one will be a psychological spectacle for the 80,000 people watching. Top goalies will fancy saving one or two but top forwards will be thinking, ‘I’ll stick 10 out of 10′. That dynamic will happen naturally.”
Asked if he expects change in time for 2015, the Tipperary native nodded.
“I think so, yeah. It’s inevitable,” he added. “You can’t have it where people will be pulled down because it’s unlikely to result in a goal. And that will happen if they leave it.”
Butler agreed that Tipp were unfortunate to have received two penalties in the only final in history where penalty takers were at such a disadvantage.
“‘Babs’ Keating said it, and I thought it was a correct thing to say, that had the referee given two 21 yard frees instead of penalties, it would have rewarded us more with the two points we would have got,” said Butler.
Former Laois manager Butler worked alongside Wexford coach Liam Dunne during this year’s breakthrough Championship campaign. He confirmed he will continue to do so in 2015.
“I was there on the technical hurling side of things, I will be there again next year on a technical basis,” said Butler. “I don’t do tactics, I don’t do physical fitness and I don’t do anything else. I’m there just for pure hurling, to improve their hurling speed and to try and match the stroke speed that we seen here at the weekend.”