IT WAS CALLED on to decide an All-Ireland final. Now it seems that Hawk-Eye is here to stay in the GAA.
Central Council will bring a motion to Congress asking it to make the score detection technology a permanent feature in Croke Park and also to prioritise its installation in three provincial grounds.
Semple Stadium, and the redeveloped Casement Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be next on the list if the motion is approved by delegates next February.
Hawk-Eye has been broadly seen as a success since its introduction at the start of the 2013 Championships, no more so than when it was needed to rule on the decisive score in this year’s drawn hurling final.
Tipperary’s John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer had a chance to snatch victory with a controversial late free but the technology showed that it had drifted inches wide of the post, and Kilkenny went on to win the replay.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though and GAA bosses were left red-faced last year when a calibration error saw a score incorrectly chalked off in an All-Ireland minor hurling semi-final, and the system subsequently suspended for the rest of the day.
The technology is thought to have cost in the region of €200,000, and the price was thought to be the main stumbling block to expanding its use beyond HQ.
But with the initial two-year pilot phase due to end next year, Central Council decided on Saturday to press for it to be rolled out to three of the bigger provincial stadia.
