Hurling is in a bit of a difficult spot at the minute.
The game has been rightly praised over the years for being one of the best spectacles in all of sport, but it's fair to say that the play in 2021 has not exactly been scintillating.
The new advantage rule has made the game very stop-start, while teams are also regularly racking up massive scores with very little resistance. The fact that there has been essentially no supporters in grounds has also had a huge impact.
You would be hopeful that things would change over the course of the summer.
Speaking at the launch the Bord Gáis Energy GAA Legends Tour Series for 2021, former Waterford star Ken McGrath said that he barely recognises hurling anymore. In fact, he has even resorted to turning off some games for the first time.
I don’t know if I know the game anymore.
I sat down last Sunday and at times you are finding it hard to get excited because there is so much loose play.
There were a couple of games I turned off and I’ve never turned off a game of hurling in my life. It was boring, it was actually boring.
For years, the clash of the ash was what we were brought up on. Now a clash of the ash is a free. I don’t think we should be taking the physicality out of the game.
It’s not a basketball match, it’s a hurling match...
As a spectator, which I am now, it’s hard to get excited about some of that type of hurling.
And then you see the skill level that they have and what they can produce. You’d love to see it a bit more open and a bit more ‘just leave it off’ to a degree.
A foul is a foul that has to be punished, but the bit of physicality — leave it off.
And I think it needs crowds. We’ve seen that in the Euros...
I could count on one hand how many times I strolled on to a ball in a Munster Championship game but that is happening countless times in the game now.
I wouldn’t be writing anything off, but I’d love to see it go back a bit more to the wildness — if you can describe it like that.
Here's hoping things improve over the coming weeks.
SEE ALSO: Eight Live Football And Hurling Games On TV This Weekend
