Offaly referee Brian Gavin feels that there is more respect in hurling than football and says there's no need for the former to adapt the black card rule.

Gavin took charge of this year's All-Ireland SHC final between Tipperary and Kilkenny without having to issue a single card over the 70 minutes at Croke Park and he feels the speed of the small ball game means it's more unlikely that players will clash off the ball.

"I think players in hurling respect each other so much, maybe compared to football a little bit," Gavin told RTE Sport.

"I could be wrong in saying that but the respect that hurlers have for each other is just unreal. They just get on with the job in hand.

"Football is a lot of hand-passing, it's a lot of in-your-face type of stuff whereas hurling you nearly haven't time. The ball is moving so fast.

"In football you could be corner-forward v corner-back, the ball mightn't arrive to you for eight or nine minutes, there can be verbals going on. Whereas hurling it's end to end stuff, there's not as much contact.

"I suppose if football ever goes back to the kicking days, that'll speed up again. But at the moment football is probably in your face, you're marking a fella, you're tugging at his jersey, you're beside him the whole time.

"That probably leads to altercations as the match wears on."

Tweet

Most Read Stories