this is a pointless thread as i read the herald last night and the headlines in the amature soccer leagues was of a under 9 game having to be abandoned 10mins from the end because of the referee being verbaly abused and threatened so if the person who set this up thinks slating gaa matches for violence he should read his beloved soccer as it happens with 8 year olds there
Wayne and Tinrylandman
Ban the 8 year olds for life?
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Mesamis ..
there is something you need to take a look at here regarding the headbutting incident
Was it premeditated or was in a rush of blood to the head ?
now whilst it was unlikly to be thought about and plotted pre game that the fella who stuck the headbutt was going to do that (therefore ruling out premeditation) .. it did not look to me as if it where a rush of blood to the head .. he wasnt involved in the fisticuffs with the opposition player in the first place as the video footage shows, therefore he didnt need to get himself involved in the incident and if he was going to go over it should have been to help calm things down , instead of not getting involved or breaking the initial handbags up .. he ran into shot straight at the young fella without him being aware of his presence and took a lunge at the unsuspecting opposition player and struck him ..
now wether he had a helmet on or not is not the point here .. the point is that if hit hard enough in the head unexpectedly , you can very easily break your neck never mind your jaw , because a sudden impact to the head can throw your head back or sideways and snap the neck .. while unlikly its more a likly possabilty if someone takes a run and jump at the victim of the headbutt before striking him..
If you are on a night out and you stuck another person a headbutt like that , the liklihood of the police charging you with assault/affray is almost certain .. why is it different in a game of hurling ?
I love the physicality side of things in GAA , handbags and hard hitting tackles being taken out of our game is the last thing i want and seeing players getting banned is also something i would not like to see .. if this was an incident where the player who stuck the headbutt was involved in a bit of handbags with the victim or the headbutt and lashed out with a face on headbutt , it would be much much easier to say it was a rush of blood to the head ..
maybe suggesting a lifetime ban is a little bit harsh i accept that , but if supporters and club players can get 96 week bans for chasing a ref with a hurl , why cant a player get banned for the same amount of time for an unprovoked potential neck breaking headbutt in a tussle that had nothing to do with him ?
Its the country as a whole thats gone downhill not just Gaa and as usual our national sport is starting to reflect this on the pitch. More and more often there's fights breaking out on the streets and no longer just fisticuffs, lads aren't happy with givin a smack to the other lad they more often than not hospitalise the other fellow. To be honest i've seen worse things off the ball during matches but i don't agree with it none the less. Also theres the technology aspect of this, how long has stuff like this beong going on but nothing made of it because it wasn't rewound and played back in slowmo..
Good to see you climbing down a little bit regarding the ridiculous idea of life ban for that incident.
Never did I say that he should not be banned but the suggestion that he should be banned for life is what I was annoyed about as it was a over-reactionary nonsense idea.
He could of potentially broke the other lads neck? Maybe but so could a shoulder.
Far more dangerous things happen on a hurling field in every match than that head-butt.