FORMER CORK HURLER, BEN O’Connor, has raised serious concerns for how the game of hurling is being refereed.
In the course of an interview for TG4’s Laochra Gael episode featuring himself and twin Jerry, Ben was asked how the game of hurling might best be promoted, and responded about the spirit of the game.
“At the moment, the standard of refereeing at the moment is cat. And it is ruining our game,” said the three-time Liam MacCarthy winner, who also won an All-Ireland club title with his club, Newtownshandrum.
Referring to Limerick player Diarmuid Byrnes’ red card last weekend against Clare in the national league, O’Connor said, “I couldn’t see anything in it anyway. Diarmuid Byrnes gave away a free, he done exactly what you’d ask a player to do, is get your leg in over the ball to get your body over it; he done that. The Clare player threw himself down to the ground as if he was shot – there must have been a sniper above in the stand.
“The next thing there was pushing and shoving. I saw no slap being thrown and Byrnes got a red card.”
He then cited another incident in the same game where Clare captain Tony Kelly was responsible for a cut on Limerick’s Adam English’s face after mis-timing a tackle with his hurley and received a yellow card.
“They were calling for Tony Kelly’s head for the slap,” said O’Connor.
“Like, it’s supposed to be the fastest field game in the world and it was a split second. Tony Kelly did not need to touch that fella, Adam English in the head. And in fairness to Adam English, he got up straight away when he got the tap.
“What made it look worse of course was the drop of blood.”
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Another incident involving blood similarly irked O’Connor, with Kilkenny forward Harry Shine having to come off against Cork after bleeding from his knee.
“I was above in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday night, the linesman went into the field and took the Kilkenny corner forward off because he had a cut on his knee, he was bleeding from the knee,” explained O’Connor.
“So, he took that corner-forward off. That corner-forward was off for about six minutes. That could have been the time that the corner-forward got three balls into his hand and got three goals. You just don’t know, but just because he had a drop of blood on his knee?
“Fellas are mad for a bit of activity, a bit of physical battle. This thing of players diving and looking for handy frees? I think we have to get off the referee’s backs, as in the fella above in the sand ticking his box that, ‘he gave a free for that, perfect.’
“Let the referee go away and referee the match whatever way he thinks and then you’ll have people watching the game.
“You see Americans coming to watch matches, they are fascinated by it, how fast it is, how physical it is. There’s nobody getting badly hurt.
“So that is how you promote the game, is by letting the game flow and don’t be blowing up for frees.”
The Laochra Gael episode brilliantly covered the O’Connor twins and their father Bernie’s staggering achievement in raising the expectations of the tiny village of Newtownshandrum and creating a hurling force and celebrated their accomplishments with a charismatic Cork side.
Ben and Jerry O'Connor, with their father, Bernie. Cian Dalton
Cian Dalton
It also delved into the three ‘strikes’ that the Rebel panels embarked upon, and two over management issues.
At this remove, Ben can see the time as being unprecedented and extremely stressful for all concerned.
“Everywhere you went it was discussed,” said O’Connor.
“Look, if you only went for a pint, there were fellas inside the bar discussing it and like, you know, it would go quiet when you’d go in because they didn’t want to keep their side of whose side they were on. And that’s the way it was. You were on one side or the other.
“But look, at the time, I really didn’t take too much notice of what people thought. I was happy in my own head of what I was doing. And once I was happy in my own head, I was just driving on with that.
“I did find that most of these things were going on when things were quiet and things happened. Like the meeting might have been at 7 o’clock, which was going on for 8 or till 9 or 10 or 11 even. So, there was a lot of late nights at the time. And like we were preparing for meetings and things. So, we could have been meeting three nights a week at the time as well when we were supposed to be not involved in anything like.”
He continued, “Then on the other side, we were doing a bit of training as a group in Na Piarsaigh. Training there on a Saturday morning. And you were saying, was there anything going to come out of this? Are we going to be back playing at all?
“So, I suppose just that little bit of a worry that things weren’t going to get started. But look, thankfully, they did. At the time, Jim Forbes was one of the main men that kind of got sides together and got them talking and got things sorted out. So, we were lucky enough that we had good men on both sides working on it.”
• The Laochra Gael episode screens on TG4 on Thursday night at 9.30pm.
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'At the moment, the standard of refereeing is cat' - Ben O'Connor raises concerns
FORMER CORK HURLER, BEN O’Connor, has raised serious concerns for how the game of hurling is being refereed.
In the course of an interview for TG4’s Laochra Gael episode featuring himself and twin Jerry, Ben was asked how the game of hurling might best be promoted, and responded about the spirit of the game.
“At the moment, the standard of refereeing at the moment is cat. And it is ruining our game,” said the three-time Liam MacCarthy winner, who also won an All-Ireland club title with his club, Newtownshandrum.
Referring to Limerick player Diarmuid Byrnes’ red card last weekend against Clare in the national league, O’Connor said, “I couldn’t see anything in it anyway. Diarmuid Byrnes gave away a free, he done exactly what you’d ask a player to do, is get your leg in over the ball to get your body over it; he done that. The Clare player threw himself down to the ground as if he was shot – there must have been a sniper above in the stand.
“The next thing there was pushing and shoving. I saw no slap being thrown and Byrnes got a red card.”
He then cited another incident in the same game where Clare captain Tony Kelly was responsible for a cut on Limerick’s Adam English’s face after mis-timing a tackle with his hurley and received a yellow card.
“They were calling for Tony Kelly’s head for the slap,” said O’Connor.
“What made it look worse of course was the drop of blood.”
Another incident involving blood similarly irked O’Connor, with Kilkenny forward Harry Shine having to come off against Cork after bleeding from his knee.
“I was above in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday night, the linesman went into the field and took the Kilkenny corner forward off because he had a cut on his knee, he was bleeding from the knee,” explained O’Connor.
“So, he took that corner-forward off. That corner-forward was off for about six minutes. That could have been the time that the corner-forward got three balls into his hand and got three goals. You just don’t know, but just because he had a drop of blood on his knee?
“Fellas are mad for a bit of activity, a bit of physical battle. This thing of players diving and looking for handy frees? I think we have to get off the referee’s backs, as in the fella above in the sand ticking his box that, ‘he gave a free for that, perfect.’
“Let the referee go away and referee the match whatever way he thinks and then you’ll have people watching the game.
“You see Americans coming to watch matches, they are fascinated by it, how fast it is, how physical it is. There’s nobody getting badly hurt.
“So that is how you promote the game, is by letting the game flow and don’t be blowing up for frees.”
The Laochra Gael episode brilliantly covered the O’Connor twins and their father Bernie’s staggering achievement in raising the expectations of the tiny village of Newtownshandrum and creating a hurling force and celebrated their accomplishments with a charismatic Cork side.
It also delved into the three ‘strikes’ that the Rebel panels embarked upon, and two over management issues.
At this remove, Ben can see the time as being unprecedented and extremely stressful for all concerned.
“Everywhere you went it was discussed,” said O’Connor.
“Look, if you only went for a pint, there were fellas inside the bar discussing it and like, you know, it would go quiet when you’d go in because they didn’t want to keep their side of whose side they were on. And that’s the way it was. You were on one side or the other.
“But look, at the time, I really didn’t take too much notice of what people thought. I was happy in my own head of what I was doing. And once I was happy in my own head, I was just driving on with that.
“I did find that most of these things were going on when things were quiet and things happened. Like the meeting might have been at 7 o’clock, which was going on for 8 or till 9 or 10 or 11 even. So, there was a lot of late nights at the time. And like we were preparing for meetings and things. So, we could have been meeting three nights a week at the time as well when we were supposed to be not involved in anything like.”
He continued, “Then on the other side, we were doing a bit of training as a group in Na Piarsaigh. Training there on a Saturday morning. And you were saying, was there anything going to come out of this? Are we going to be back playing at all?
“So, I suppose just that little bit of a worry that things weren’t going to get started. But look, thankfully, they did. At the time, Jim Forbes was one of the main men that kind of got sides together and got them talking and got things sorted out. So, we were lucky enough that we had good men on both sides working on it.”
• The Laochra Gael episode screens on TG4 on Thursday night at 9.30pm.
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ben and jerry corkness GAA Hurling Laochra Gael Twins