Written by John Morley
Dublin camogie captain Laura Twomey believes the sport could benefit from rules changes.
There have been calls to bring refereeing in line with hurling in the wake of the All-Ireland camogie final.
Both Cork and Kilkenny were constantly blown up for infringements and ref Eamon Cassidy was criticised for his whistle happy approach.
Twomey believes “more physicality” and a focus on “letting the game flow” would increase audience and player participation.
“You could potentially introduce shouldering, but you could also word it in another way. Not necessarily a shoulder but allow more physicality into the game and I think that in turn would let the game flow,” said Twomey.
“At the moment we’re just so restricted in what we can and can’t do. Any sort of physicality and there’s a free pulled up against you,”
“I don’t know about bringing in or allowing a shoulder. It’s up for debate. Obviously, defenders and that might be more on the side of bringing it in,” she added.
Twomey’s main gripe from a players’ perspective is the inconsistency in the allocation of fouls from perceived fouls.
“If refs are all on the same page, and that has to come from The Camogie Association where there’s a rule change regarding physicality,” said Twomey.
“The all-Ireland finals were very stop-starty. For supporters watching it, it can be very frustrating,” she added.
Twomey has also flagged the handpass goal as a rule that must go to improve the game as a spectator sport.
“I just think for me a big one is the handpass goal,” said Twomey.
“It takes away from the skill of the game and I think we’ll see a lot more better kind of shooting and goals in the game and it would make it more exciting and more interesting for people to watch,” she added.
