Hurling needs more depth in quality not rule-tinkering, says Pete Finnerty

Pete Finnerty believes attempts to solve hurling’s problems should be less to do with rule-tinkering and focused more on helping the lower-tier counties close the gap to the game’s elite.

A series of experimental rules continue to be trialled in the GAA’s Higher Education Division One league – including the prohibiting of consecutive handpasses, increasing the number of steps permitted from four to six, 65s to be taken from inside a team’s own half of the field and awarding two points for a converted sideline cut.

But Finnerty, who won back-to-back All-Ireland senior hurling titles with Galway in 1987 and 1988, feels the game itself is in a good place and instead it is the number of counties competing at the top level where the problem is for the sport.

“I think there’s nothing wrong with hurling,” says Finnerty. “If you go back to the Clare-Cork All-Ireland final of a few years ago, it was probably as good a spectacle of a sports final as you could get anywhere in the world.

“Now I’m talking about Super Bowl, I’m talking about the Ryder Cup, I’m talking about Wimbledon. These guys were so primed, they were so fit.

“It was such a contest and fought with such valour and vigour and determination and you never knew which way it was going to go, it was a pity there had to be a loser. There wasn’t much wrong with hurling then and there still isn’t.

“What’s more important is helping the counties that aren’t at that level and doing whatever it takes, such as youth development officers going into the schools.

“The game is fine, there isn’t too much you can do with the game to improve it. Maybe people are saying two points for a sideline ball or they want to reduce the weight of the sliotar.

“You can try things like that, it’s experimental, but still as a contest, man-on-man, it’s unrivalled. You see Shane O’Donnell going on a run and the size of him and the strength and physicality and the wizardry of him scoring a goal, you won’t see that in any other sport in the world.

“So, there’s very little tweaking you can do with the game to improve it except for helping the teams that aren’t at the level, and give them serious help.”

The Hurling Expert Advisory Group, chaired by John Meyler, is to examine the data next weekend from the series of matches over recent weeks. Only after that analysis will any decisions be made as to what, if any, trial rules will continue going forward.

Finnerty, who was inducted into the Gaelic Writers’ Association Hall of Fame on Friday night, believes Limerick created a template other counties could follow in raising the footprint of hurling locally.

“Things were in the doldrums [in Limerick], the only thing you were hearing [about] Limerick was rugby. They had shops in the middle of O’Connell Street and they had the new stadium and they had Rog and they had Sky Sports and everything was rugby, rugby, rugby.

“I think [Anthony] Daly went down there for a while to see what was happening and did surveys in schools and found out that there was only 22 per cent or 23 per cent of the kids playing any kind of Gaelic sport, whether it was hurling or football.

“They put Graeme Mulcahy and lads like that into schools to develop it and bring it on. They were keeping them at home in the summer, doing camps. The next thing they started winning a bit at underage level and they came along and now look at where they are today.

“Football was in sh*t-street, they identified it and they did something about it and they worked at it until such time as they got it right.

“[With hurling] I think we’ve got to work with the counties and bring them along until such time as we get them up to the level of the likes of Limerick, Cork and Kilkenny. That’s where work has to be done.”

And the five-time All Star reckons the comparison with football is not necessarily helpful as hurling doesn’t need the major overhaul the big-ball code required.

“I stopped watching football when I went to the Dublin-Donegal game where Jimmy McGuinness decided to put everyone behind the ball.

“I just fell out of love with football after that, I couldn’t watch it, it was horrible to watch. But now they’ve changed the rules and identified those weaknesses and addressed them.

“I can watch Monaghan and Cavan in a preliminary match in Ulster and enjoy it, the skills, the ability. Football had a fantastic year.”

Meanwhile, All-Ireland women’s senior football champions Galway will host Kerry in the opening round of next year’s Lidl National Football League – a fixture that will be a repeat of August’s All-Ireland final.

The previous day at 12pm, Waterford will be at home to Cork in a Munster derby to kick-start Division 1 of the women’s 2027 National League with that game to be broadcast live on TG4.

Division 2 next season will contain Dublin (relegated from Division 1 last year), Antrim, Kildare, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Tipperary and Tyrone.

Division 3 will be made up of Carlow, Clare, Down, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Roscommon, Westmeath and Wexford.

And Division 4 will feature Derry, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Offaly, Sligo and Wicklow.

The league finals will be played over the weekend of April 3rd-4th.

Women’s National Football League Division 1 Fixtures (All games 2pm unless stated)

Round One

January 23rd: Waterford v Cork, 12pm (Live on TG4)

January 24th: Armagh v Donegal; Meath v Cavan; Galway v Kerry

Round Two

January 31st: Waterford v Armagh; Galway v Meath

February 1st: Cavan v Donegal (Live on TG4); Cork v Kerry, 3.45pm (Live on TG4)

Round Three

February 6th: Armagh v Galway, 2.45pm (Live on TG4)

February 7th: Meath v Waterford; Donegal v Cork; Kerry v Cavan

Round Four

February 20th: Galway v Cork, 2.45pm (Live on TG4)

February 21st: Kerry v Meath; Armagh v Cavan; Waterford v Donegal

Round Five

February 27th: Waterford v Kerry, 3.30pm (Live on TG4)

February 28th: Meath v Donegal; Cavan v Galway; Cork v Armagh

Round Six

March 13th: Kerry v Armagh; Donegal v Galway; Meath v Cork; Cavan v Waterford (All games at 2.30pm)

Round Seven

March 20th: Donegal v Kerry; Armagh v Meath; Cork v Cavan; Galway v Waterford (All games at 4.45pm)