High tackles: Hurling in danger of losing the head

Two weeks in and the hurling championship is heating up.

But is it threatening to boil over?

A notable feature of every round of games so far has been shoulders and hurls to the head.

Limerick and Waterford on the opening day in Munster saw several high hits, most of them involving the Déise's free-taker Stephen Bennett. In the 34th minute, Barry Nash slapped his hurl down onto the top of Bennett’s helmet. A minute later, Seamus Flanagan shouldered Bennett into the side of the jaw. In the 46th minute, Gearóid Hegarty received a second yellow card for a shoulder into the head of Conor Gleeson. In the 58th minute, Bennett caught Diarmaid Byrnes on the side of the head with what might charitably be called an attempted hook.

Last weekend, Galway’s Jack Grealish was fortunate to escape with a yellow for an arm/elbow to the head of Mikey Butler. Seven minutes earlier, Cian Kenny’s shoulder had caught the chin of Daithi Burke a glancing blow and he escaped a card completely, perhaps only because the Galway man stayed upright and you would fear as much for the Kilkenny sub’s scapula in that case.

Last night, there were two more shoulder-to-head blows. Dublin's Daire Grey caught Wexford Conor Devitt late on at Croke Park while Tipperary's Ronan Maher received a yellow card for doing the same to Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon in the 15th minute at Páirc Ui Chaoimh.

Danny Sutcliffe and Cathal Barrett both received yellow cards for catching opponents around the neck with their arms.

"There have been several incidents now," says former Tipperary star Shane McGrath, who thinks players are unwisely banking on helmets to prevent serious injury.

"I’d say it’s going to take a red card in a big game for it to really sink in. And it’s probably going to