There’ll be no more roguery going on with with sliotars.
Research from a couple of years ago revealed that, when both were pucked as far as they possibly can be, a Cummins sliotar travelled 13 yards further than an O’Neill’s one.
In a game literally defined by the smallest of tiny inches, 13 yards makes one hell of a difference.
That disparity may have levelled in recent times, but when different manufacturers produce oifigiúil sliotars, it’s nigh on impossible to ensure a common weight.
And you can bet your barney on it that teams are, one way or another, taking advantage of these variations. Say a goalie is going for a booming puck-out, isn’t he going to go with the lighter ball? Say a free-taker is standing over a raker, isn’t he going to wretch for the Cummins if he possibly can?
But over the next couple of years, those differences will be taken out of hurling. That’s because a standardised sliotar, the luminous sliotar with red rims on it that was used in the Fenway Classic, is expected be imposed on all games of hurling – both club and county – in the not so distant future.
Forever the traditional white sliotar has been used but the times they are a changing.
The new one will also help with visibility, the luminous and red colours said to be the most recognisable of all.
The new sliotar being used at the Fenway Classic.
No date is set as of yet for its introduction but the ball, manufactured by Green Fields DST – a company in Kilkenny – looks set to become uniform for all hurling games.
The new sliotar contains a microchip which is readable pitchside and verifies that it complies with what are going to be the new standards.
The change came up for discussion on Thursday’s GAA Hour Show and all the lads agreed it’s for the better.
“This clearly is a good thing that every sliotar is the same,” began Wooly.
“When that (White) ball is cleared up into the air, it’s hard for the camera to follow it,” he added.
You can listen to this chat, the Eddie Brennan interview and much more from Thursday’s GAA Hour Show here.
