Having never seen a hurling match I can hardly dispute this, but I would point out that this balance is apparently shifting, for better or worse. According to this graph on hurling’s Wiki page, since the mid-'70s goal scoring has decreased 40%, from 5 per game down to 3, while point scoring is up about 35%, from 25 to almost 35. The point-to-goal ratio ratio has thus grown by about 140%, from 5:1 up to 12:1.
Out of curiosity, what do you think has been the cause of this shift? Is it a matter of players becoming more skilled, i.e. players with better accuracy who can more reliably score points from distance? Or does it have more to do with an evolution of strategy, i.e. teams slowly coming to the realization that they had been too focused on goal-scoring, and could improve their results by by becoming more points-oriented? In either case, overall scoring has increased along with the point:goal ratio.
A) For an amateur sport, the level of training undertaken by the players these days is insane. Players today are an order of magnitude faster, fitter and stronger than those of twenty/thirty years ago. This has the obvious effect that it is much harder to play at the top level, and there is far less chance of a soft or easy goal.
B) The concept of systems and strategies has developed greatly over the last ten years alone. When I was a kid there was still an adherance to the idea of 15 men against fifteen, each man holding pre-determined positions and marking only the man they were told to mark. Now its a different ball game. Each GAA game starts with the same formation, Goal keeper, three full backs, three half backs, two midfielders, three half forwards and three full forwards. When the whistle goes, thats the line out on the field. In the past, that formation would have stayed the same all game. But now? Mangers will immediately drop forwards back into the defense, have corner forwards as third midfielders, have half backs constantly roaming forward, etc etc.
Allayed to the increased fitness this evolution of strategy has had many effects, and the ability to prevent goals is a big part of that. Superfit forwards are now able to track back down the field, swelling numbers in the defensive zones, and so making it a lot harder to pass the defense and score a goal.
If an inferior team has decided to bring twelve players back and park the metaphorical bus, then of course the opposition will find it a viable strategy to sit back from that crowd and just pop over long range points.
Its a balance, and is part of why I say only three points for a goal is a good thing. If a goal were worth more, then it just reinforces that a team should play super defensive so as to not concede that five/six pointer. With the values closer, it allows teams to remember that they also have to attack.
I used to love to watch hurling and Gaelic football. But I don’t see how a goalie would ever have a chance of stopping a shooter (in hurling – in football not as hard). I’d think a good shooter cold put it into any one of the four corners most of the time. My only guess is that the defense hinders free shots too much.
Really? That makes perfect sense to me. I mean, in soccer, players taking penalty kicks – from a standing start, striking a ball that’s on the ground and stationary, 11 meters from the goal, situated directly in front of the *center of the goal, with no time pressure or defenders save the goalie – can’t reliably hit the corners. They usually give themselves some margin for error, aiming a couple feet inside the boundaries and relying on the goalkeeper’s inability to cover such a large area. (To be honest, this always seemed odd to me; if I’d never seen a soccer game in my life, I would expect a success rate on PKs of greater than, say, 98% for professionals.)
In hurling, OTOH, the offensive player is likely running, with defenders either nearby or closing fast, striking a ball out of mid air, at a variable distance from the goal, and most often from some place other than right across from the dead center of the net. Oh, and the goal is smaller, too, while the goalkeeper has a big stick in his hands that he can use to increase his reach. It seems like just the ball on goal would be a minor accomplishment a lot of the time.
I remember reading somewhere that hurly was considered a play version of battle way back in the old days. I can see that developing the skill needed for handling a hurly stick would make a dandy training tool for edged weapon work, and the coordination and cooperation skills you develop would be terrific in pitched battles when standard formations break down.
When in possession, there are certain actions you have to take. For example you cannot run with the ball in hand in Hurling, you have to balance or bounce it on the end of the hurl. (You can also bounce it off the ground, but not twice in a row)
You have I think four steps allowance before you must have either released the ball, or transferred it from the hand to the hurl. It is the referees job to enforce this rule, and they tend to be very subjective about applying it. Generally referees are not counting steps, they just have a good sense of how long is too long. Counting steps is not always a choice anyway, if a player is bundled up by two/three defenders he probably wont have taken four steps, but he will still have held possession too long in the hand.
Its the referees judgement call, and the penalty is a free kick to the opposing team.
Kick? Do you really mean that? Or is it a free hit with your stick tossing the ball from your hand? Is it even permitted to purposely kick the ball while it’s on the ground?
Sorry, as I said I play the football version, which is an actual kick of the ball.
If a foul is conceded, play stops and the fouled team gets a free from the place where the free occurred. Similar to soccer, no opposing player is allowed within about ten yards of where the free is being taken. In football, they simply kick the ball from the hands, while in hurling the ball starts on the ground, and the player flicks it up with the hurl before hitting it where he wants it to go.
Hurlers can get much more distance on the ball from free than footballers, so frees tend to be attempts at a score from much further out the field than would happen in a football match.
As for the kicking the ball in hurling, in open play you can kick the ball on the ground to your hearts content, its just not an efficient way to get up the field and score.
