Hurling & Camogie

Camogie chiefs confident trialled playing rules will get Congress green light for 2021 season

THE focus on today’s (SATURDAY) second annual virtual Congress of the Camogie Association will be the voting on the playing rules which were trialled during the 2020 inter-county playing season.

Playing rules can only be reviewed at Congress every third year, but the introduction of a trial period for experimentation means that delegates now have a better understanding on whether or not a rule change will benefit the game.

Hilda Breslin, who will take over from Kathleen Woods as Camogie Association president at Congress, said the feedback to the trialling of the rules during last year’s League and All-Ireland Championship had been “exceptionally positive” and there is expectation that the changes proposed will get the required two-thirds backing to come into immediate effect at club and inter-county level for the 2021 season.

There are six proposed playing rules that delegates will vote on, one of which, if passed, would permit a player to shoulder an opponent. At present, the Camogie Association rulebook only allows that “a player may use minimal contact on an opponent’s body from side-on, once they are making a reasonable effort to gain possession of the ball”.

The proposal does specifies minimal contact that is not dangerous play and Breslin believes that the rule will come through.

“In our feedback and in any of the surveys we have done, that is coming back as probably the most positive trial rule.”

The other proposed changes include allowing a quick puckout after a wide; a player deemed to be persistently fouling (two deliberate fouls) will be given a 'tick' by the referee, followed by a yellow card if they commit another foul after receiving said tick; allowing a free be taken from the hand if the player is fouled inside their own 45-metre line; outlawing the intentional dropping of the hurley and hand-passed goals; and only one person may stand on the goal line for a penalty.

The rule changes will be voted on individually, one by one, and that should maximise the chances of at least some of them being accepted.

There is a number of other motions regarding registration dates and the constitution of committees with one asking that county Boards appoint a Cathaoirleach Tofa to sit for a year on the board before taking over the chair.

Any of the proposed playing rules passed at Congress will come into effect 30 days later on May 10. If inter-county competitions throw-in earlier than May 10, Camogie’s Ard Chomhairle has the power to make any new playing rule operational before this date.