Are penalty shoot-outs in hurling fair? First beneficiary disagrees

Given the number of matches in the county championships, it is probably no surprise that penalty shoot-outs have proliferated and attention focused as the matches become more important.
The Clare hurling semi-final between Inagh-Kilnamona and Sixmilebridge on Sunday went all the way to a shoot-out. There were some great performances. Both goalkeepers, Eamonn Foudy and Derek Fahy, converted two penalties and saved twice in the shoot-out.
Former county player Jamie Shanahan also scored both of his penalties, including the decisive one, which put the Bridge one up – meaning that when David Fitzgerald’s went over the bar, the match was finally done.
There has been plenty of discussion about the merits of the shoot-out. It is accepted that matches need to conclude on the day to facilitate greatly condensed fixture schedules, but equally, misgivings about the method of resolution.
Ronan Sheehan was manager of the first county team to win a hurling penalty shoot-out when Down beat Offaly in the semi-final of the 2020 Christy Ring Cup. Despite this, he is not an enthusiast.
“We were delighted to win but it’s not something I’m particularly fond of if I’m being honest. After 80 or 90 minutes of extra time. It’s very difficult to get five lads to step up and take a penalty to decide whether their team stays in the championship.
“With the new rules around not breaking the line, a hurling penalty isn’t an easy thing to score. The experts like Pat Horgan are literally hitting it into the corner where the goalkeeper has no chance. Getting five players with the ability to do that even on an intercounty panel is next to impossible.
“In Down, we always fancy ourselves going into a penalty shoot-out. Why? Because Stephen Keith is so good at saving them. He’s saved three or four this year.”
The ‘winner on the day’ protocol has become more widespread to facilitate the swift running of fixtures necessary for the accommodation of the split season.
“The tightness of schedules means that we have to get a result,” he says, “and any means of settling matches on the day is going to be a bit arbitrary, but it’s a strange way to decide a hurling match – puts a lot of pressure on individuals and there are fairer ways to do it.
“I would say five players taking 65s would be better and more in keeping with the skills of the game, striking a ball cleanly and from distance.”
That was originally the method of separating teams and in 2018, Limerick and Clare drew a league quarter-final 0-33 to 4-21 after extra time in the Gaelic Grounds before becoming the first counties to proceed to a shoot-out, in that case taking 65s until the home side had won 7-6.
Sheehan is interested in the method proposed by Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee for a different way of resolving matches that are drawn after extra time. Termed ‘overtime showdown’, this would entail teams playing on until one had scored and the other had failed to equalise with their possession.
“You would think that in hurling, you could play ‘first score wins’ with the ball thrown in and one team getting a score with the other getting the puck-out. They either score or the ball goes dead and the first team wins.
“Is that ideal? No, it’s not, but it’s fair in that everyone on the field gets to contribute and play a part as opposed to five lads selected to hit a penalty. How often do you hit penalties in training in hurling? It hasn’t been like football where penalties are practised a lot more.”
Should Gavin’s committee’s idea be accepted by November’s special congress, the likelihood is that hurling would follow suit.
Sympathy for players thrust into an unforgiving spotlight is a major influence on those wanting to find other ways of resolving draws.
In the Examiner, former Clare All-Ireland captain Anthony Daly suggested on Monday that the point of difference between GAA and soccer shoot-outs – the same five players taking the penalties when they go to sudden death – should be tweaked to cut the possibility of the same player having to take more than one.
Sheehan believes that penalties are not a good fit for Gaelic games.
“We sometimes ape professional sport and the shoot-out is largely borrowed from soccer, but it’s different. In high-stakes games, the fella standing over the ball is getting paid hundreds of thousands of pounds. They’re not an amateur player about to decide whether their club reaches a county final for the first time in 80 years.
“They live in the community and work in the community. Some of them could be GDOs having to visit schools. It’s very harsh and I think something that spreads the responsibility is just fairer.”