Cardiac Screening Saves Lives

Amidst all the issues confronting the GAA – and there are many for what is normally the quiet pre season month of January – the issue of player health and welfare is paramount.

There is no suggestion that training is in any way the cause of sudden death. What is possible is that high intensity training can lead to the onset and impact of underlying medical conditions. It is also a common enough occurrence that people with an underlying condition are going about their everyday business unaware of the timebomb ticking inside them. For some people, the first symptom is sudden death.

The GAA has recognised this through its commitment to screening programmes. The GAA now advises that the most effective way to identify risk is for players over the age of 14 to undergo cardiac screening on one occasion. It is also advised that this process be repeated before the age of 25. (http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/cardiac-screening/)

Also many clubs have invested in defibrillators and indeed last year in a high profile incident a referee in Down was resuscitated using a defib. These should be de rigour at every ground.

Some conditions cannot be dealt with by a defib. I was told by the parent of one young rugby players that died on the pitch that he was ‘dead by the time he hit the ground’. Whatever condition had caused his sudden death wouldn’t have been recoverable using a defib.

A few pointers then:

• Within your club, try and make arrangements to get players screened. Cardiac Risk in the Young and HealthyHeartsHealthyLives offer a service in Ulster.
• Also the linked referenced above offers the latest GAA guidance on screening.
• If your club has a defib, make sure it is accessible and that people are trained to use it. Run sessions to familiarise people with what to do in the event of emergency
• If you do not have a defib, consider buying one.

Take a proactive approach to player welfare in your club. Education, information and action.

Paying managers, sorting our discipline and dealing with tangled transfer situations are important, but most important of all is the welfare of our young people.

Our sympathy and prayers go to the families and friends of James Morley from the Ballyhaunis GAA Club and Ciaran Carr from Round Towers GAA club. May they rest in peace.

Links:

http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/cardiac-screening/

http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/ecg.htm

http://www.healthyheartshealthylives.com/

http://www.thecormactrust.com/

Paddy points out correctly that for an ‘amateur’ organisation there are a lot of people being paid, starting in Croke Park with An Uachtarán himself and a cohort of administrators, coaches and others. Every Provincial Council is well tooled up personnel-wise as are county boards. The positive effects of that are clear to all.

In counties and clubs the length and breadth of the country managers, coaches and a variety of carpet baggers and snake oil salesmen are also receiving money. Much of it in the form of under the table payments. Last Friday night Paddy tells us, the GAA management committee finally received Padraic Duffy’s report on payments to managers. It was a bit like the Third Secret of Fatima. Everyone knew it existed but few knew of the actual contents.

Paddy suggests that the GAA will be required to take some action to address this area. Notwithstanding the fact that coaches are entitled to vouched expenses, as are other folks involved in team preparation. The thinking is that clubs and counties will be disbarred from taking on the services of coaches from outside or that payments will be allowed on some sort of regulated scale.

The problem with the first option is that it is likely to result in the rich getting richer and the poor staying poor. We have seen the value of outside coaches. And I am making no conclusions as to who is being paid anything here.

In Fermanagh we have seen the galvanising effect Peter Canavan has had so far. In Ulster hurling, especially the weaker counties, outside coaches have had a tremendous effect. Let’s not forget the impact of coaches at intercounty level such as Eugene McGee, John O’Mahoney.  Micheal Dempsey, one of Brian Cody’s right hand men is from Laois and the Antrim players have been raving about the input of Andy Ward from New Zealand via Ballynahinch.

The issues of coaches being paid on some sort of sliding scale may have merit but the reality is that the local businessman can and will augment the going rate to get the fella he wants.

A friend of mine was involved last year in taking a team from his own club to an All Ireland club success. He was left personally out of pocket on a range of expenses which he didn’t ask for back for food and other requirements. But more tellingly he was telling me over Christmas that it was like a full-time job for a period of time, dealing with players and all the collateral that came with the territory. This resulted in a considerable reduction in income – the extent to which was only fully quantified when doing his recent tax return. Far form being paid, the role was costing him.

This scenario is likely replicated in many clubs. My friend’s brother in law is also a senior coach in his own club playing at senior championship level and he also is not paid. Nor would either of them take money because they realise that down the club are many other people just like them sacrificing what time they can afford.

There is no easy answer, but just because one person is being paid does not mean they all should. But that’s the GAA.

Eventually the third secret of Fatima was revealed. Apparently when she appeared, Our Lady called for the payment of GAA managers. However, it was felt the news was too shocking for people to take on board, so a tale was concocted that the Third Secret instead related to the shooting of Pope John Paul II. Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction.

The witty Ulster supporters, known for their ‘Norn Iron’ sense of humour started up a chorus of Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Ironic of course, but it prompted a flurry of puzzled, irate and annoyed responses in the Twittersphere.

I was there myself once years back when Ulster were also doing a number on Leicester, then featuring England captain Martin Johnson. Johnson was a replacement coming on as a sub to start throwing his weight about to no effect. Cue the same chorus. They pride themselves on the old favourites the Ravenhill crowd. Last night was no exception. Made a change from the usual Stand up for the Ulster Men.

The point several people made last night was that this was all in the spirit of a bit of craic. To the unreconstructed Irishmen amongst us, an Ulster crowd singing an African-American Spiritual dirge written by a Choctaw Indian and converted from Rugby Tour Drinking Song to England Anthem in praise of Hat trick scoring hero Chris Oti in 1988, was a step too far. Humourless bastards we or what?

The point was made that there are plenty of GAA men that attend Ravenhill. True. Windsor Park it is not (and I’m going there for the craic next month and will report back). However, having been frequently over the last twelve years usually on a beer drinking jolly, I have never found the place totally welcoming. Maybe that’s just me.

It is not a home from home in the way the Old Lansdowne Road was. In my opinion there is a definite air of the Northern Ireland establishment at play. That is fine. The atmosphere is good craic among the umbrellas, Barbour Jackets, scarves and old school ties. But it’s not me.

The point has also been made that we can learn from Rugby about respect for referees and player behaviour. Correct, but that is not an Ulster phenomenon.

Rugby in Ulster does not have the same interchangeability that it does in say Munster where folks play and support rugby in winter and attend hurling and football in the summer. Rugby in Ulster is the largely the preserve of the Unionist and Protestant Middle and Upper Middle Classes. It is by and large not played in the Catholic Grammar school sector, or the Vocational sector.

There are many of GAA persuasion in Ulster that follow rugby. Munster Rugby has a fascination in this house that Ulster will never have because they don’t have the same mythology. Yes, there is a cross over, some lads go and play, fair play to them.

But my point to one guy this morning was that it is one-way traffic. For all the card carrying GAA men at Ravenhill last evening, there won’t be reciprocation at Casement on Sunday when Antrim face Tyrone. And more’s the pity. I listened to Trevor Ringland tell us what he liked and disliked about the GAA at an Ulster GAA conference last year. It was great stuff.

But it is still what ‘we can do to make out product more welcoming’. In my opinion, our games are there to be played. Come and play them and don’t let the other factors distract you if interested in actually playing. Or watching. I know one diehard Ulster Rugby fan who is of sound Ulster Protestant stock and is also a member of Club Tyrone. And once you have started, let your kids come and start playing too. If you are serious that is about what we can do for you and what you can do for us.

My brother in law always sounds a note of caution around rugby and was pleased when Ireland were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup. His reasoning is that it is a competing attraction at underage and therefore we should resist attempts at cross-fertilization.

I coached a team that used the local rugby club’s lights last winter as we had nowhere else to train. Even that action concerned him mildly. He sees the day when as a more professional sport it will seek access to our schools in a benign way, and is already doing so. The schools will let them in the interests of collegiality, sport and cross community partnership. All well and good he says, but our games aren’t being reciprocated in the other direction. And he’s right.

We have at least two very promising underage hurlers/footballers who will likely end up lost to our club because of the competing attraction of rugby at the Grammar school they are likely to attend.

So as far as not falling over myself to promote Rugby, I have my reasons.

But as far as English Rugby teams losing on Irish soil to a team from the Nine County Province of Ulster, yes, you can stick your chariots up your arse. And I do Stand Up for the Ulster Men, and Women, but all nine counties of them, in all sports.

Do you?

Football in January - the Glamour Game

There’s been a fair bit of interest over the last week in the ways in which county teams are making their return to training.

With an increasing horde of GAA players committing their thoughts to Twitter, often with scant regard for who might be reading, we can get a real insight into what’s going on out there. Or can we?

These same boys, some of whom were ploughing up and down sand dunes on remote beaches during the training ban were suspiciously quiet during December. Maybe the odd missive about lingerie shopping for the girlfriend or what sort of treat to buy the pet bitch.

But, come the new year we’ve been getting a steady drip drip. In 2003 after Joe Kernan famously shipped Armagh off to the now legendary La Manga Club in Spain, a flurry of copycat overseas warm-weather training camps were organised. There, teams lived like professionals for a week or so before returning to work in the Allied Irish Bank, St Columba’s School, the oul boy’s farm or wherever, and the same old routine.

This year, following on from their success last year, early morning training seems to be the thing. Reports today suggest that Dublin are starting their sessions at 5:30 am. I’ll repeat that, 5:30 am. The thought of it makes me physically sick. That’s round about the time I wake up one the sofa having dozed off after a pleasing glass or two. Likewise Donegal. Early birds get the worm we are told. It used to be if you had a reputation as an early riser you could sleep til’ noon. Not anymore. The pressure this puts on lads to physically get to training is savage. The new philosophy is if you don’t do the time, you’ll be found out. Big time.

Consider last summer. But for two late points in the first half Tyrone had Donegal pretty much where they wanted them. Likewise but for Colm McFadden blazing his goal chance over the bar in Croker, Donegal had the Dubs pretty much where they wanted them. But ultimately it was the Dubs that rose to the top on both days and in the Final.

What gave them those inches? Was it the early morning sessions? Pat Gilroy’s relish for the task in hand? Mickey Whelan’s wily old fox coaching? The input of Caroline Currid? Or the application of boys like Cluxton who trian for the day when it might all come to pass with just one chance. Likely all of the above.

Talking to one Ulster county player earlier, he was telling me they were training like never before, harder, tougher, faster, longer. Knackered he said he was, but loving it because he knows what the prize might be.

And with the training regimes of Dublin and Donegal filtering out to the rest of us, the bar has been raised, there’s no doubt about that.

Come Septmeber, we’ll see who’s for the high stool, the high jump or the heights of All Ireland success. Can’t wait, could be a fascinating year.

Yes you....

The men in black have been in the news much of late. Same as it ever was you might reply.

In England soccer referee Jeff Winter landed himself in hot water following a gratuitous and offensive attack on Celtic and their Catholic religious following. Supposedly blogging about his holiday in New Zealand, Winter’s ruminations on the way in which The Bhoys celebrate or don’t delebrate success has been deemed offensive enough to bring about a complaint from Celtic Football Club.

Back here in GAAdom word comes out today via John Fogerty and the Irish Examiner that GAA referees are considering the establishment of a referees body, similar in some ways to the GPA.

The impetus for this has been a series of assaults and attacks on referees in club games. It continues to defy logic in that people don’t realise that without referees there would be no games. The best referees are the sorts of people that you don’t notice, in other words the game proceeds without any controversial or contradictory decisions.

Of course in competitive sport it is human nature to blame someone else. Writing yesterday in Gaelic Life John Morrison, uber coach and GAA deep-thinker ruminated on the fact that the outcome of a high level game can turn on a small number of key decisions made by players on the pitch. This echoes Jose Mourinho’s theory about moments in a game.

The player can make the ‘correct’ decision or the ‘incorrect’ decision. Either way, it can have an impact on the outcome. But what if the key decision by the referee is correct or incorrect? Inevitably they come under greater scrutiny than the corner forward that missed an easy score in what turned out to be a one-point game.

Likewise coaches can make correct or incorrect decisions. How many times have we heard the oul chestnut that we lost it on the line. Many of the boys making that assertion have never stood on the line in any pressure situation, even an underage championship match and therefore have no knowledge what they’re talking about.

So, our view for what it’s worth is that The Gaelic Referees Association or whatever it is called eventually has its merits, but it needs to be combined with a reality check by all the ref abusers in clubs up and down the country. It’s always someone else’s fault lads isn’t it. Sadly that is something we can’t see happening anytime soon.

Meanwhile, back with Jeff Winter. OK maybe not. Pig and Grunt.

Once home, my jottings from the back of envelopes and B&Q receipts transposed into a hard cover book using a complex series of hieroglyphics, arrows, dotted lines and X and Y markings.

My sister in law once asked me if she could borrow the book for some coaching sessions she was running. The whole thing might as well have been in Sanskrit or bullshit because although perfectly clear to me, it was impenetrable to anyone else. She handed the book back puzzled. She couldn’t understand it.

That is the reason why a DVD for GAA coaching is an excellent idea. In fact it surprises that given the rise in interest in coaching methods in recent years that we haven’t been inundated with them. YouTube is a great resource for drills and games and not just from other GAA coaches. Lacrosse, Gridiron, Aussie Rules, Soccer and baseball have all furnished good ideas.

The problem is sometimes, as was the case with my little blue book, it is difficult to figure out what exactly the coach is trying to do or indeed what skills the players are learning. Often too, on YouTube, the drill can feature the sort of lad you dread to see appear at training because he drops every ball, runs to the wrong place and generally makes a balls of your carefully laid plans.

So, it was with great interest then that I opened my DVD from Total GAA Coach. You may be aware of the website www.totalgaacoach.com. A quick peruse shows that the lads boast a host of expert contributors, the enterprise is led by Andy Moran, Barry Solan and James Quinn. The DVD cover features a pic of Andy in action, the packaging is adequate and does the job. Upon opening the menu is simple and easy to follow. It offers you a choice of Training drills, Training Games or Skills, or you can play all.

My advice here is to watch these one menu at a time. And, have your remote to hand to pause and rewind. In some cases the drill or conditioned game is over fairly quickly so you need to go back to acquaint yourself with what exactly they are doing.

My fear was that the drill would run on an on ad nauseum but it doesn’t – the pace is generally very good i.e. you see just enough to figure out what exactly is going on. Occasionally the edit time is very tight, where the drill or game is featured for a short period, but overall the DVD is fast paced. It is no bother at all to stop and rewind and the quality of the material makes it easy to watch.

The drills, skills and games are filmed from a single static camera raised above pitch level offering a clear view of what is happening. This works perfectly well.

The pitch lines are clearly visible giving an idea of perspective and distance and the grids and training areas used are clearly marked out. It is highly user friendly.

Your understanding is helped by the fact that the entire session is run on an immaculate looking pitch, with good markings and highly visible training cones, colour coded where necessary.

Crucially too, and this is of the highest quality, the DVD features players that are able to execute the drills and games to a high level of skill and at speed. No doubt somewhere in the corner of the TotalGAACoach office there is a showreel of howlers, but on the actual DVD the quality of play and skill is of a high level with little or no mistakes.

Likewise the players are well kitted out in matching gear, unlike the players at many’s a club training session. Overall, it gives the impression of being highly professional, well organised, clearly thought out and executed to a high level

Starting with training drills, the menu offers: Kicking and Catching Drills; Handpassing Drills and Scoring Drills. Moving through the drills at a good pace, the narrator doesn’t over elaborate but offers salient coaching tips along the way, which is good and helpful.

“Accuracy and timing, remember to focus on good technique”

These are all aspects of coaching good practice where the coach should explain the point of the drill to the participants and then reinforce and correct as they go along. It ticks that box without over egging the advice. The commentary is helpful but unobtrusive. Occasionally the background music was a little homemade porno but maybe that adds to the overall experience. It isn’t a distraction.

The drills are broken down with clear headings into different categories “Drills for Instep and Outside Foot Pass = Kick Over and Support”. Again, throughout, coaching pointers offered include “remember to emphasise correct running technique.”

Overall, this is an excellent production, developed and edited to a high quality. Crucially, the DVD works when you insert it into the machine, not always a given in the past with over DVDs I have received from other sources. The navigation is clear and easy to follow and you can easily shift from one section of the DVD to another to locate the material you are after.

In terms of the content, all coaches and players will have seen and used their fair share of drills and small-sided games. There is plenty of variety with the TotalGAACoach DVD and it combines some old favourites, with variations with some new ideas. The commentary is succinct and not over bearing. The ideas can also be adapted to hurling particularly for small-sided games and shooting with the distances varied. I have already used some of the ideas to great effect.

If you are interested in coaching and in adding to your bank of resources with a well produced, well recorded and well edited DVD, this is worth the €15 the lads are looking for. Before I received it I thought the price may be steep enough but it’s not. It is packed with a series of good resources that will help you improve your sessions. Every club should invest in this. Hopefully it will be the first of many from TotalGAACoach.

A preview is available here: www.totalgaacoach.com/coaching-dvd

Read my lips.

So Luis Saurez  (a Uruguayan) calls Patrice Evra, (a Frenchman) a ‘negro’ (amongst other things) during an English Premier League soccer match.

He is found guilty by an independent commission, fined £40,000 (in other words peanuts) and is suspended from playing for eight matches. He has a right of appeal and fourteen days to do so.

He is roundly defended by his manager Kenny Dalglish and legions of Liverpool fans around the world, not least in Ireland. This sort of terminology is acceptable in Uruguay we are told. Uruguay has a proud history of playing Black players going back as far as 1916 we are told. Suarez cannot be guilty. He did not know what he said would prove offensive we are told.

Evra on the other hand has previous we are told. He accused a Chelsea groundsman of calling him an ‘immigrant’ a couple of years back. The case was not found and he was suspended. This in the eyes of Liverpool followers casts Evra as a liar with previous form, ergo Suarez did not say anything. Besides if he did it is OK to say it because it is OK in Uruguay.

What a load of balls.

What is amazing is legions of Irish people getting exercised about a spat between a Uruguayan and a Frenchman in a match involving two English soccer clubs. Some of these are among the most fervent gaels. Note I do not call them supporters.

I went to watch Manchester United playing Newcastle some years back at St James Park. It was a salutary experience. I very quickly realised that although I had followed United since I was a child I was not a supporter. In the true sense of the word. The parochialism, the vitriol and sheer animosity between the tribes of Newcastle and Manchester, really, truly and I mean this, had nothing to do with me.

During the game legions of supporters in the Newcastle side of the cordon turned and mocked United fans about the Munich air crash. Police lines three or four man and woman deep kept the sections apart. Coins rained down on our heads. A diehard Manc beside me picked them all up and pocketed them. The worst offenders in the Munich chanting were not in fact from Newcastle at all he informed me, he recognised some as Chelsea supporters up for a row. The abuse between the groups was nothing I had seen or heard before. It was intimidating and not pleasant. And although I had followed the red of Manchester for years, it had nothing to do with me. I didn’t take offence or respond in kind. I was there to watch a match.

I attended the 1999 Champions League Final in Barcelona, the time United came from the death to win 2-1. It was a fantastic night and a great day on the beer on the Ramblas. I had some great times with the Manchester lads but I felt that I was again an outsider there. Yes I was supporting Manchester United in the game and spent a fortune buying a ticket from a tout for the privilege, not to mention the costs of getting there. But if I compared it to standing in Croke Park when Tyrone won each of their three All Irelands; when our Club won a senior championship and I was in the stands. There was no comparison.

That is why I find it difficult to see why so many people from this part of the world are so agonised over whether this racial abuse happened or not. Likewise sometime today John Terry will learn his fate. If he is found guilty the reaction of a lot of people will be he’s a hateful hoor anyway and deserves what he gets. Others may be less judgmental. The irony of course about Terry, and Luis Saurez and Patrick Evra is that we don’t know them. But we can still call them hateful c***s, liars, scum because we make assumptions about them. We can do the same about our own Gaelic footballers, and many do.

Behind all that, let’s bear in mind one thing in the racism charge and whether anything was intended or not. If you insult me, it is up to me to determine whether I have been insulted or not. Just because you are unaware of the insult doesn’t absolve you of guilt.

If I go to an Islamic country and disrespect their tradition and culture by the way I dress or act, it is not sufficient to say I did not know how I should have acted or that it’s OK to do that sort of thing at home. Likewise when people come to our country and behave in ways that are unacceptable they will be advised to correct their ways.

People say things they shouldn’t on the pitch. It happens. That doesn’t mean it should be condoned. Sepp Blatter got into trouble for trying to brush aside the issue of racism. We have seen the abuse of black players in Italy, and in Eastern European countries. Until action is taken and people stop making mealy-mouthed excuses it will continue. Whether it is 30,000 Croat supporters abusing an English football international or one Uruguayan abusing a Black French International. Whether you follow Manchester United or Liverpool FC is irrelevant.

And it may just be the case that because of the colour of his skin, Patrice Evra knows a little bit more about being racially abused than a legion of white commentators and followers. And that includes us.

Nesxt week he represents the entire GAA fraternity over in Manchester in the main BBC awards shown live on TV. As the BBC report shows, Sean works with all age groups at the Coleraine club.

Anyone who knows of Sean McGoldrick will know two things. One, that he is the archetypal GAA unsung hero, doing what he does and what he has done with a generation of players because of a love of the game . And Two, that he will be mortally embarrassed and affrtonted at the personal coverage the BBC accolade has brought upon him.

For Sean, the players and the young people who play the games are the real heroes. One who knows him well says that when the Eoghan Rua team he coached won their inaugural Derry Senior Football Championship in 2010, Sean was as proud as punch but every question was batted to the side with praise for the players he and Sean McLaughlin coached. The players he would repeatedly assert, they do the work.

He has coached Derry hurling teams, played gaelic football and hurling at the University of Ulster’s Coleraine campus and devoted years to first playing and now coachng the game. Sean would claim himself that hundreds and thousands of volunteers up and down the country do the same as he does, no more and no less.

McGoldrick’s house must be an interesting place for a flies on the wall. His son Barry captained the Derry senior football squad in 2011. Barry was joined on that team by younger brothers Sean Leo, who was one of the players of the year in Ulster and Ciaran. (Nephew Niall Holly also featured as did two other Eoghan Rua men Decky and Ciaran Mullan). Sean Leo and Niall started on the Derry u-21 hurling team that won back to back Ulster titles in the late 2000s defeating a fancied Antrim outfit eventually existing to Dublin and Tipperary. Younger sons Colm and Liam both play for the Club’s senior team with Colm having featured for Derry Minor and U-21 football sides. Both are also fine hurlers we’re told.

Sean’s daughter, Gráinne is one of four camogie players in Ulster to hold an All Star Award. She is a longstanding member of the Derry team, having won a Junior All Ireland in 2007 and a Senior Gael Linn with Ulster . She was a central part of the Eoghan Rua team that won the Intermediate Club Camogie All Ireland in March at Croke Park. Her sister Méabh captained that team, having also led Jordanstown last season. She too plays for Derry. The youngest lad Dara is too young to have played for anyone yet but it’s in the blood. In some homes the mother is the quiet one but Schira is a respected Schools camogie coach and was no mean player in her own day.

I imagine the conversation round the dinner table after victory and defeat would be forensic. Heated. Questioning. Critical. Always focusing on the players.

It’s likely the same in any Irish GAA home. And Coleraine’s unsung hero is is no different to countless others throughout the country. Sean represents all of them  and all of us when he goes over to Manchester next week to the overall awards. He could take it or leave it I’m sure but it’s great to see the Gaelic Athletic Association recongised at the top table. Thanks is due to the BBC and Mark Sidebottom in particular.

Well, according Liam ‘Winker’Watson, the Countyr’s Top Cats turn into pussys when the pressure comes on. He and Richie Power were detained for several hours by the immigration officials on their way to San Francisce on the All Star Hurling trip.

Watson, being from the Glens is a tough bastard of course. Many’s the Loughgiel man was carted off to Gough Barracks for a bit of questioning and never would have cracked so he was well fit for the Homeland boys. Not so Richie. According to Winker:

“Me and Richie Power were in together, I thought he was going to cry at the time,” he told the Irish News.

“The two of us were sitting and the sweat was running through our fingers. We had spent 10 hours on the flight, and to be quite honest, I was tired. I just wanted to get off the plane and get to bed.”

According to various reports the imbroglio was due to previous Visa applications having been declined. Whatever the reason Watson wasn’t long touting on his mate.

Anyone who has had the misfortune to speak to those miserable, humourless ignoramuses known as US immigration officials will feel sympathy for the two lads. Whether Power gave Watson a taste of the ash during the exhibition game for saying he was going to cry is not known.

They were subsequently freed to play in the All Star match on Parole, having been given ten days to leave the country.

Personally I think they should have challenged the border guards to a game of hurling and put some manners on them.

The Camogie Association has their Playing Rules out for consultation at the minute. This should be good.

Whilst the game has many good points, there are a number of areas that need active consideration, not just in the way the game is played but the way in which it is administered.

Among the items among consideration in the draft are the awarding of two points for a sideline cut sent directly over the bar. Like the introduction of the hooter in the women’s big ball game, this is something that the men’s game could take heed from. It was introduced a while back of course but dispensed with. Particularly for the camogie player, scoring from the sideline is rare enough skill and even for the budding hurler it still draws gasps of admiration.

Next the mysteries of bas size on hurleys. Rule 11.13 states amongst other things: ”Where a penalty has been awarded the goalkeeper is the only player who can use a hurley with a bas that does not exceed 18cms to defend the penalty.”

In my reading that means that any other player defending the penalty can use a hurley with a bas up to 17.99cms to defend a penalty.  It does not limit outfield players to using their regualtion hurl, which is what they are trying to do.

It gets better. Rule 7.1, further relating to the size of the hurley bas states: “Where a penalty has been awarded, the goalkeeper is the only player who may use a hurley with bas that does not exceed 18cms to defend that penalty.”

Given the stipulation defining what goalkeepers can use: ‘a hurley with bas that does not exceed 18cms’, what size of bas are the two outfield players also defending the penalty allowed to have? This wording literally prohibits them from using any size of bas up to and including 18cm. Ergo they must use a larger bas. Literally according to rule therefore, outfield players for the purposes of a penalty are allowed and indeed required to use a hurley with a bas larger than 18 cms! What size is permitted?  As the joke goes about the girl handling something for the first time, how big does this thing get!

Worringly, how many referees are aware of this Rule? How many are in a position with tape measure are in a position to implement it. And, in the case say of a penalty awarded in the dying moments of a championship match, would any referee actually take the time to do it at the risk of the mayhem that may ensure. Also, in the current era of the big bas hurley, how many outfield players are actually using a bas smaller than 13 cm? Answers to Ben O’Connor.

Next one final rant, the 200 mile Rule. Where counties and clubs are more than 200 miles apart the Camogie Association’s requirement is that such fixtures be played at a half way venue. The net result of this is that county teams in Ulster rarely get to play home national league or championship matches against anyone other than each other.

That means de facto that youngsters in Antrim and Derry don’t get to see the likes of Jane Adams and Gráinne McGoldrick in action in the county shirt on home turf.

Is there something wrong with girls that they turn into one of the three ugly sisters if they travel further than 200 miles from the front door.

if you have any comments on the Rules, send them to your county board official or straight to Croke Park. All help is welcome I’m told.