O’Donovan remains hopeful the Handpass will be cleaned up

By Thomas Conway

Conor O'Donovan is on a crusade. The two-time Tipperary All-Ireland winner, who also captained Nenagh Éire-Óg to their fabled 1995 county title, has made it his mission to resolve an issue which he regards as a fundamental threat to the integrity of modern-day hurling.

The game now revolves around the use of the handpass, but in O’Donovan’s eyes, this most basic of skills is subject to widespread abuse by players across the country, who disregard the correct technique and opt to throw the ball instead.

You can see how this might happen. Hurling has become increasingly fast-paced and fabulous, characterised by quick stick-work and short-passing, most of it conducted at speeds which seem hypersonic to the naked eye.

O’Donovan believes the increased pace of the game is in part responsible for allowing players to abuse the existing hand-pass technique, whereby a clear striking motion must occur when the player is palming the ball from the hand.

He first became aware of this apparent infraction over a decade ago, while watching an All-Ireland camogie final, but the Nenagh Éire-Óg clubman, who began his career in Limerick before transferring to Tipperary, feels that the handpass is now commonly abused by players at the top-level. Moreover, he believes elite hurlers are now setting out to intentionally throw the ball - a serious accusation from the former Tipperary player.

“To go back as far as 2008, I was watching an All-Ireland Junior Camogie final on the television, and one of the teams, Clare, scored a goal late on in the game. The player was standing virtually on the goal-line, but to me it looked like they had thrown the ball into the net,” he recalls.

“It was obviously deemed a handpass, but my reckoning at the time, was that it looked like a throw. I think the fact that it’s happening more and more often, and players are recognising that they’re getting away with it, I think it’s fair to say that they are doing it deliberately at this stage.”

Competitive disadvantage

It’s important to state that O’Donovan isn’t setting out to ban the hand-pass altogether, but rather, to eliminate just one aspect of it.

Last August, he proposed a rule amendment to Croke Park which would deem it a foul to either “hand-pass the ball or palm the ball directly from the same hand that is holding the ball.” This would eliminate the ability of players to throw the ball.

He emphasises the fact that, under his proposed rule change, there are still various hand-passing options available to the player. They could, for instance, hand-pass directly from the hurley, or perform a two-handed pass - in which the ball is thrown from one hand and palmed by the other, with the hurley transferring hands in the process. It seems quite technical and might be difficult to visualise, but O’Donovan has illustrated his argument with videos, appearing in a short report on RTÉ’s Six-One News in 2019.

For any young child learning the basic skills of the game, the temptation to throw the ball can be almost irresistible. O’Donovan is well aware of this, and he fears that temptation is now being reinforced by players at the top level. Kids will seek to emulate their heroes, and in Conor’s experience, this is precisely what is happening in relation to the hand-pass.

“I’ve been speaking with some coaches of underage players over the past while, and they’ve been trying to stress to their players - their under-sixes, their under-eights, their under-tens - that it’s a foul to throw the ball,” he said.

“And the message they’re getting back from those players is: well, hold on, all the top players are actually throwing it and getting away with it. So those coaches are caught in a tricky situation. They’re conflicted - do they encourage their players to throw the ball, do they stress to them to continue to handpass the ball properly? And if they do that, if they tell them to continue to handpass the ball properly, they’re actually putting their players at a competitive disadvantage.”

Fundamental issue

Some might feel this is simply a rehearsal of the debate which occurred in gaelic football during the 2000s, when the hand-passing technique deteriorated into an almost farcical action, with players effectively throwing the ball to one another. In that scenario, there was a relatively easy fix. Players were forced to perform a clear striking motion or suffer the consequences. But it was easy to police. Not so in modern hurling.

The pace of the game means that, according to O’Donovan, referees are often forced to guess whether or not the ball has been thrown, particularly when a rook or melee emerges in the play. Often the ball will come shooting out of a concentration of players, making it practically impossible to judge what exactly has happened.

“The fundamental issue here is this: players are now throwing the ball - which is a foul,” O’Donovan insists.

“And the reason they’re throwing the ball is that they’re offloading it from the same hand that the ball is in. Quick hands are fine, but it you’re throwing the ball, that’s a foul. It might be quick, but it’s a foul. End of.”

In an interview with The Irish Times last August, 2021 Hurler of the Year Cian Lynch was completely unfazed by the prospect of a change to the existing hand-pass rule, highlighting the importance of adapting to new circumstances. Given his vast repertoire of skills, one imagines that the Limerick ace, like his teammates, would have no problem in adjusting to O’Donovan’s new rule proposal. But is there any prospect that the proposal will actually come to fruition? O’Donovan believes that, in the long-run, change is inevitable. From a short-term perspective however, he isn’t so optimistic, though he remains intent on pursuing the issue and advocating his proposed resolution.

“At this point in time, I retain a little bit of hope that the GAA might take on board my proposed solution this year, and have it submitted to Congress to be voted on,” he added.

“If not, we’re going to have a continuation of the same this coming year. But I will continue to endeavour to build more support for my proposed solution and endeavour to have it submitted to subsequent Congresses down along the line - because the situation as it is, is unsustainable. You just can’t let the throwing of the ball continue indefinitely. And it would be very irresponsible of the GAA to do so.”