GAA Hurling 2017

Or, to abbreviate it, WWIII.

Today two sweeper systems battle to avoid destruction. 

Here, the influential documentary-maker Adam Curtis expands on Gizzy's theme.

"The Power of Hurling Nightmares"

by Adam Curtis

"But hurling was about to enter a new and terrifying phase, driven by the vision of savage hurling men. And for the roots of that vision we must return to the dark days of the Cold War. The sweeper system grew out of a dystopian vision of the potential of human beings. Savage hurling men began to believe that, left unchecked, a powerful full forward line could level whole counties in five seconds flat.

The roots of this idea began in Waterford, who vowed that the terror unleashed during the 2011 Munster final must never, ever be repeated. They vowed that the lessons of that catastrophe had to be learned by future generations. To prevent such a disaster from from ever happening again, hurling technocrats devised a new system based on statistics and probability, where midfielders or even forwards would act as extra defenders, and thus stop such destruction. This new doctrine was called, simply, "The System".

But then the strangest thing happened. Details of "The System" were leaked to other counties, who started copying it. "The System" was to then lead to unintended and terrifying consequences that not even the most savage hurling man could have predicted.

It soon became apparent that when two teams simultaneously used "The System", both teams stopped attacking. And by stopping both teams from attacking, an idea that was designed for self-preservation was, paradoxically, to lead to the one thing that savage hurling men feared the most.

 "The System" would lead to the exact scenario of mutually assured destruction that would destroy the game of hurling forever."