'I fear for hurling': Former All-Star Sambo concerned over proposed new rules

Both changes, McNaughton believes, will prove retrograde steps for the small-ball game if they are embraced beyond the trial period of the Fitzgibbon Cup league starting in mid-October.

Two points for a sideline was trialled two decades ago and has found favour again in the Advisory Group’s interim report.

McNaughton is not convinced, however, as he feels it potentially promotes the wrong set of coaching values among young players.

"If a guy catches the ball between two defenders, solo runs, shortens the stick and hits it over the bar from 70 yards for a point, do you mean to tell me the guy taking a sideline ball is more skilful?” says the Cushendall native.

"The kid that can hit three or four sideline balls is going to get on the team and may do little else.

"Your team will get, say, six points compared to another young fella who scores four points from play and shows courage in scoring them. I have reservations about awarding two points for a sideline ball, even though it's a skill we all admire.

"But I remember a boy said to a certain Antrim player at half-time one day: ‘The day you die somebody will blow a whistle and you’ll come out of the grave because all you want to do is take frees and hit line balls.’

"We have to be careful here. It's the same with the one hand pass rule and then you’ve got to strike it. All it’ll do is create more rucks and the last thing hurling needs is more rucks. If you’re under pressure you would naturally hand pass the ball out, but now you won’t be able to – and you’re going to get hooked and blocked and there'll be more pushing a shoving sessions as a consequence."

The Hurling Expert Advisory Group, led by respected hurling man John Meyler, has put a renewed focus on the technique of hand passing where players have to display a "clear and definite strike with the hand" in a bid to purge the game from throw balls.

"All it takes is telling every referee in the National League, ‘If in doubt, blow for a free.’ I guarantee by round three of the National League every manager and coach will have made sure their players are showing separation. Just apply the rule that’s there, you solve the problem."

McNaughton understands the motivation behind the rule changes given that the football championship – with their own set of new playing rules proving a resounding success – was infinitely more entertaining than the hurling series in 2026.

“The football championship was better than the hurling championship by a mile,” McNaughton says.

"It was more entertaining. I just think hurling is at a low ebb, but we need to consolidate what’s there rather than create new things.

"I fear for hurling. Limerick is one of the best teams to ever play the game – but if you look underneath that top group, have you seen a worse Kilkenny team, or a worse Wexford team? There are teams that are falling away and shouldn’t be falling away.

"Until you reach a point where you’ve hurling people making hurling decisions in counties around the country we’re never going to improve."

McNaughton added: "That’s the one flaw in everything you try to do – and that’s not blaming football people. That’s their passion, but there needs to come a time when hurling people make hurling decisions.

"That’s not happening in a lot of the smaller counties. It’s not happening in Kerry, it’s not happening in Derry, Tyrone or Armagh. If you don’t have a passion for something, you can’t love it.

"If you have that passion, you’re going to do everything in your power to make it grow.

"To Gaelic football, hurling is like an old girlfriend that it abides but wants nothing to do with her, really. They say ‘hello’ and move on. Wherever there’s a tradition for hurling you must make sure it grows in that area."

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