Penalties no longer sufficient punishment or deterrent
Penalties are no longer a strong enough deterrent to prevent defenders from fouling forwards bearing down on goal, as evidenced during Sunday’s drawn All-Ireland final.
Both Semaus Callanan and John O’Dwyer saw their penalties saved by Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy, sparking debate over the rule change that came into effect at the star of this year’s championship whereby a penalty must be struck from outside the 20 metre line.
The issue of where penalties were being taken from garnered a lot of attention as the likes of Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash, in particular, perfected the art of advancing the ball nearer to the 14m line with his lift before striking the ball goalwards.
The subsequent rule change, dubbed the Nash Rule in his honour, was introduced after the Munster quarter-final replay between Cork and Waterford when Stephen O’Keefe charged from his goal as Nash rose the ball – the result which was the Waterford man being struck on the leg with the sliotar which prompted further questions as to the safety of the penalty technique.
“It came to a head in the championship game between Cork and Waterford this year and the powers that be decided that they needed to do something and this rule was brought in that you can’t go beyond the 21 [metre line] when you’re striking the ball,” said former Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack on RTÉ’s “Sunday Game”.
Former Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy said that Sunday’s situation showed that it was now much harder to score a penalty, in contrast to the league final between the same two sides when Kilkenny twice scored from penalties to draw the game before claiming the title in extra time.
“In both instances the advantage in this instance in the league final is with the attacker when they’re brought down... That match finished in a draw, if the rule was as it is now you probably would have had Tipperary being league champions. We’ve shifted the advantage now clearly into the hands of the defender, that’s the bottom line,” Sheedy said.
Despite Joe Canning and Pa Horgan both finding the net with penalties following the introduction of the penalty, fellow pundit Eddie Brennan – like his former manager Brian Cody – feels the advantage has shifted away from the attacker too.
Brennan questioned whether the current rules were a fitting punishment for the penalised team and player and suggested that the goalkeeper alone should stand in goal, as opposed to the three men that are currently permitted to line the goal line.
“I support what Eddie has said, I think it would balance things up if you had one player, the goalkeeper on the line facing the attacker. I think what we said at the time was – and I would have been very strong on it – that the amount of goals that were going to be scored was bound to decrease. .. There is a problem and it needs to be dealt with,” Cusack concluded.
