Hurling, Gaelic football, NFL, association Football, basketball etc are all now possession games because that offers the best odds of winning. Removing the handpass wouldn’t force the game away from valuing posession, teams will just pivot to some other negative way of achieving the same thing.
It will lead to more spoiling, frees and broken play. Midfield will be a total quagmire with more injuries and increased rates of head trauma. Big difference between freshers league and battle hardened senior teams. It would be a mess
I don’t think it will, players will adapt and will move the ball quicker. The game will far better. Of course, if this is trialled and the opposite prevails I will admit I am wrong but what annoys me is people totally dismissing the new rule or even saying “they are all legal hand passes!!”.
A genuine handpass is grand. Its a fraction slower and is easier to intercept.
The throw is a curse.
I almost walked out of an All Ireland Semi Final last year when Clare systematically ran up the field throwing the ball to each other which almost resulted in a goal.
It was RIP Hurling stuff.
Refs just need to blow 100 frees a game until lads get the message.
Who knew the handpass was saving lads from such dire consequences to their health?! If the handpass is changed it would be much less profitable to bring 12 or 13 lads back into defence as happens now, as once possession is won back it would be much harder to maintain it without the comfort blanket of the handpass. Fewer lads filtering back, a more stretched game, and more striking will reduce rucks rather than increase them.
It was great craic to watch and you don’t really get that roar from the crowd anymore that you used get when a full back would burst out and puck the ball as far up the field as he could (usually aimlessly).
Those days are long gone though. Babs had a bit of a point somewhere that time in his mixed up comments about players education levels. There’s too much at stake now in terms of the effort they put in and management of their lives to go out at the weekend and play a lottery.
I think skill levels were fundamentally lower in the past also and teams would not have been able to execute a possession game even if they wanted.
I’m not against trialling alternative hand pass rules further but regardless of what any new rules there are I think hurling, at the highest levels at least, will remain a possession game moreso than a territorial game.
We are never going back to that point but there was a nice balance 10 years ago between possession and territorial hurling. It will still remain a possession game as any of those fresher games will once again highlight.
There can be the odd game completely ruined by frees alright - the inconsistency in what frees are given for, and the amount of time devoted in a match to fellas strolling around hitting frees and 65s is imo a bigger problem than handpasses or possession.
I don’t see handpasses as a blight on the game, but under the current ruling they are unreffable, and that in itself is the problem.