Former All-Ireland final referee Barry Kelly has backed a proposal to extend the black card rule to hurling.

The measure would see players sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes in hurling for one of four cynical fouls, including tripping an opponent, deliberately colliding with an opponent after the sliotar has been played or taking a player out of a movement of play, and behaving aggressively towards a match official.

“It’s not a precise analogy, but if you’re the most careful driver in the world, you won’t care that it’s five penalty points for careless driving because you won’t get caught. Therefore, what’s the issue?" the Westmeath man said in the Irish Times.

“I’m more in favour now with the current sanction of the sin bin. For instance a friend of mine refereed a schools’ game where very early, a player was blatantly foot-tripped. He said that it was much easier to give this guy 10 minutes on the line rather than expel him for the rest of the game.”

“There are cynical fouls in hurling – no question about it. There’s no reason not to use the black card to sort out the obvious fouls, like tripping and the pull-down – blocking isn’t as common in hurling, but the black card has had a huge effect on it in football."

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