'I would say that I’m cautiously optimistic,' says O'Donovan ahead of hand pass motion at Congress

Hundreds of delegates from all around the world of GAA will descend on Donegal Town this weekend for the GAA’s Annual Congress where several motions will be debated and voted upon by officials; with one motion in particular taking keen interest for Nenagh Éire Óg club, former Tipperary All-Ireland winning hurler Conor O’Donovan and, dare I say, a large proportion of hurling people around Ireland.

O’Donovan is well known at this stage for his views on hurling’s current state and for the better part of the last half-decade or more, he has ploughed a lone furrow in trying to amend the current issue around the hand pass in the game of hurling.

Back in December 2023, O’Donovan’s motion to amend the hand pass rule was passed unanimously at the Tipperary GAA Convention and was therefore eligible to be put forward to this Congress to finally put a definition on the highly contentious and endlessly debated blight on modern hurling.

Despite the time between then and now, O’Donovan has continued to highlight the issue as best he can, and he will be front and centre this weekend in Donegal after Tipperary CEO Murtagh Brennan invited him to the event to present the motion to Congress, and he is hoping the work is taking place in the background to help pass the motion.

“I haven’t been canvassing anybody, really. I have a lot of other stuff going on and I simply don’t have the time to be doing that sort of thing,” O’Donovan admitted.

“But maybe over the next week, Tipp GAA and the County Board might start canvassing for support from the other counties.

“Overall, what I’ve been trying to do over the years has been creating as much awareness of it as I can.

“I would have written letters to various newspapers, highlighting the issue, and anytime I see games where it's a problem I would try to highlight it through social media as well.”

The rule passed in the Dome back in 2023 read as follows: “The introduction of an additional Technical Foul - Rule 4.2 (c) which will state that it is a foul to either handpass the ball or palm the ball directly from the same hand that is holding the ball.”

However, in recent months there has been a change in the motion going ahead to Congress this weekend with Tipperary GAA liaising with the GAA hierarchy over the wording of the rule and, it has been changed in an attempt to amend the current rule around rule 4.2 (b), rather than introduce a new one.

The amendment now going to the floor this weekend reads as follows:

“Amend Rule 4.2 (b) Playing Rules of Hurling (Technical Fouls) Page 27 Official Guide (Part 2) to read: To handpass the ball, from the same hand that is holding the ball, or without it being released and struck with a definite striking action of a hand.”

This change of tack is one that O’Donovan is pleased with as in theory, it is believed that is would be easier to pass than trying to have an entirely new rule passed, and will rather amend the rule already in situ.

However, there has been little attention given to the issue in mainstream National Media in more recent times, and there is still a reluctance in many quarters to create what is considered to be a drastic action on the hand pass in hurling and he is hoping for more media attention in the lead up to this weekend.

“What I like to see is members of the media highlighting that there is a problem,” O’Donovan said in relation to the debates around the hand pass over the years.

“There’s various newspapers and it’s even been brought up on the Sunday Game and they would highlight it from time to time.

“They would usually come at it from a different perspective though and would highlight where the referee would make a mistake in penalising a hand pass but they don’t ever seem to focus on the times when players have thrown the ball and they haven’t been pulled for it.

“But at the same time, it keeps the issue in the forefront of people’s minds.

“You have the Football Review Committee (FRC) in the news for the last couple of months and that has taken a lot of the spotlight off recently,” O’Donovan added.

The football action has taken up endless column inches and airtime across the different GAA mediums in the last few months, and even on Allianz League Sunday last weekend, Joanne Cantwell and company spent large chunks of the show around the FRC rules, and considering how monumental the rule amendment passing would be for the game, it has been more or less banished to the foreground of debate across the board in the last year.

“The reason, I think, it doesn’t strike with people is that referees are just ignoring it and the game is just flowing away,” O’Donovan said when asked about the lack of attention.

“It’s not given any attention by match-day commentators. The only time it gets a bit of attention is when the referee actually does penalise a player for throwing the ball and it was actually a legitimate hand pass, but that’s the only time it will grab a bit of attention.

He continued, “It’s a kind of perverse situation because the referee isn’t penalising it, and to an awful lot of onlookers, they’ll look to the referee and think ‘he hasn’t seen any throw there’ so we won’t dwell on it, we’ll just follow the play.

“I wasn’t at the game (Tipperary versus Limerick) last Sunday but I watched it on the telly and, to me, there was an awful lot of thrown hand passes and I’ve heard anecdotally that there were a lot of comments of people calling for throws in the crowd.

“It just doesn’t get highlighted after games anymore, but I’d be half-hoping that things are moving in the background to try and generate support, so maybe in one sense, it could be a good thing that it’s not getting much attention at the moment.

It must be added that the rule change has held up to scrutiny in practice after the trial period in the third-level Fresher’s hurling competitions back in 2023. O’Donovan attended those games and after seeing them, he was buoyed by the outcome and it has only added steel to his resolve since as they adapted rapidly to the change.

“As far as I’m concerned, the only way to fix it is through a rule change; be it a new rule or by amending the existing rule.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. People are saying that the referees should be enforcing the rules. That just won’t work, it’s as simple as that.

“The referees will get slated for it. Absolutely slated for it. So, the onus needs to be put on the players.

“It’s not as if they (players) are being asked to learn a new skill. They’re not, so it's no work for them in that respect.

“It was trialed in the freshers hurling last year and it worked. I found it really refreshing. I went in to see two games inside in UL and it was the most enjoyable experience I’ve had at a hurling match in God knows how many years.

“In one game, I think there were three instances of it and, in the other, there were four where it was penalised every single time.

“Then the final was broadcast then on YouTube where it was only pulled once within the first two minutes and the whole game flowed after that.

“It works, and it shows that players would be well able to adapt to it quickly.”

So, up the West coast O’Donovan will travel this weekend, and to successfully pass the amendment, it will take a 60 percent majority of county, provincial, and GAA official delegates present to pass the motion.

This is O’Donovan’s D-Day after countless hours and work over the past few years and he is quietly confident that it could find its way over the line.

Should the amendment fail, it would be another five years before a motion could be re-submitted through his club, but there is the chance that if the amendment comes close to the 60 percent required and garners significant exposure, the Standing Committee on Playing Rules could take up the mantle and carry the can for O’Donovan going forward.

“I would say that I’m cautiously optimistic,” said O’Donovan on the chances of the amendment passing.

“I would be hoping that there is awareness out there that this has become a problem. Talking to people on the ground, everyone concedes that it is a problem.

“I hope that all the delegates present will see the bigger picture here, that hurling is suffering because of this problem.

“It shouldn’t be about what is in the best interests of one team or one county. I would hope that everyone will look at the bigger picture and see that the game of hurling is what is of concern here and vote in the best interest of hurling itself.”

He finished the interview bullishly saying, “Regardless, it wouldn’t stop me from continuing to highlight it over the coming years either. There’s no doubt about that. That’s all I can do.

“But hopefully, it won’t come to that,” he concluded.