Henry Shefflin and Patrick Horgan have insisted that sledging isn't a problem in hurling.
Speaking at the launch of Centra's healthy living initiative in Dublin's Herbert Park yesterday, both admitted to being taken by the antics of Tyrone and Donegal players during last Sunday's controversial Ulster SFC preliminary round clash in Ballybofey.
"I've never come across it," Kilkenny legend Shefflin said.
"I came across the odd macho thing more than anything else - 'You're soft' or whatever - but that was basically it.
"I'm obviously reading what you're writing so it seems to be the thing that it's getting personal, by all accounts, and I've never seen or heard it on a hurling field in all my years. I would definitely feel it's not a hurling thing. That's my own personal experience playing the game and from anyone you speak to… I've never come across it."
Cork forward Horgan, meanwhile, questioned why Tyrone defender Justin McMahon spent most of the game "hanging off" Michael Murphy.
"Michael Murphy, a man hanging off him, I don't know how someone can train for seven months to go around doing that as a job. It just bugs me. I have no time for it anyway," he said.
Asked if he had ever been subjected to sledging, the Glen Rovers sharpshooter replied: "I've never experienced it - a lad misses a free and he says something like 'you missed a free' but that's basically it. From talking to different players hurling-wise, it seems to be something that's crept into the game of football. You would hope that it just doesn't creep into the game of hurling. I don't imagine it will."
Tweet