Canning And Cusack Slam GAA Over Treatment Of Cork Star Who Broke Contentious Rule

Joe Canning has once again hit out at the inexplicable GAA rule which prevents players from bringing hurleys onto the pitch before the warm-up.

Canning was on punditry duty on Saturday afternoon as his native Galway took on Cork in the hotly anticipated All-Ireland semi-final. Alongside him on RTÉ was Corkonian Dónal Óg Cusack.

Cork welcomed injured duo Tommy O'Connell and Tim O'Mahony back for the game, a timely boost for manager Ben O'Connor in the middle of the park.

From their position at the side of the pitch, Canning and Cusack spotted an unusual pre-match incident involving O'Connell, which brought the contentious rule to the forefront of their discussions.

Ahead of Cork v Galway in Croke Park, Joe Canning spotted a contentious incident involving returning Cork star Tommy O'Connell.

The camogie clash of Kilkenny and Waterford served as a curtain-raiser and ultimately went to extra-time.

"Tommy O'Connell, when the camogie match was blown full-time, he was out, he brought his hurley out," Canning said.

I've a bee in my bonnet, you're supposed to be not allowed to, I think you should be. Every player should be, right?

But he brought his hurley out with one of the backroom team and he was pucking around. You could see he was testing out his thumb. After he struck a few balls...the security ran on and took his hurley off him straight away.

He wasn't pucking around but I'm after seeing him, he wasn't there for the little puck around in the warm-up, but I've seen him go out. Ger Millerick was pucking with Tim O'Mahony.

Dónal Óg Cusack then jumped in to call the incident involving Cork's O'Connell an "embarrassment" to the GAA.

Cusack: "On about things like that Joanne [Cantwell]...that's bad form. Hurlers should be allowed to bring out their hurls."

Canning: "They should be, yeah."

Cusack: "It's an embarrassment, whoever that was from Croke Park."

Canning does indeed have a bee in his bonnet about the deeply unpopular rule, having previously written about the issue in his Irish Times column. That tirade came after a controversial incident which saw Patrick Horgan prevented from bringing his hurl onto the pitch ahead of a Munster SHC clash between Cork and Limerick in 2024.

In his autobiography, Canning said seeing the Northampton rugby players playing with hurls on the pitch before the 2024 Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster made his "blood absolutely boil."

"Not because I thought the rugby players were doing anything out of the ordinary. They weren't. But because they were indulged something that the GAA denies its own stars literally an hour before they become the centrepiece of hurling's biggest day," Canning wrote.

"To me, this rule is stone-cold ridiculous. It speaks of nothing more than a lack of respect for its own people. Sometimes, the GAA really lets itself down with stupid stuff. And that's about as stupid as it gets."

The rule preventing players from bringing hurls onto the field of play is one of the most unpopular in the GAA, and the pre-match incident ahead of Cork v Galway will only serve to bring it to the forefront once again.