Hurling dissent rule to be in place for league finals

The new dissent rules in hurling will be in place for the Allianz Hurling League finals, the GAA has confirmed.

Motion 19 – the proposed introduction of the dissent rule to hurling – passed with 95.1% of the vote at Saturday's GAA Congress at Croke Park.

The rule is already in play in football where a 50-metre punishment is the penalty, with hurling adopting a potential 30-metre penalty.

Once voted through, the rule, per regulation, comes into force 28 days later, in this case the weekend after the final round of Division 1A/1B fixtures with their finals scheduled for 4-5 April.

The Division 2, 3 and 4 finals are scheduled for 28-29 March, so the rule will be in play in time for those too.

"One third of the teams that will play in the championship will have direct experience of it," said GAA director general Tom Ryan.

"We did toy with the idea of bringing it in earlier so that everybody would have direct experience of it.

"(We) just felt that was maybe a little bit unfair on referees to be short-circuiting the process.

"So just play it straight, 28 days from today (Saturday) is when it comes in and it'll catch the weekend."

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