TOMÁS Ó SÉ was visibly agitated on The Sunday Game last night as he insisted that it’s time to dispense with Gaelic Football’s black card.
Ó Sé and fellow panellist Aaron Kernan were reacting to the black card picked up by Kildare’s Neil Flynn at the end of Saturday’s Leinster SFC quarter-final against Wexford at Croke Park.
Flynn dragged Wexford’s Eoghan Nolan to the ground on the Hogan Stand touchline, right on halfway, but Ó Sé rightly pointed out that there was absolutely no benefit to Wexford from Flynn’s dismissal as referee Rory Hickey blew for full-time seconds later.
Former Kerry ace Ó Sé said: “It (black card) was brought in to throw cynicism out of the game.
“Flynn was black-carded in the last seconds of the game. What benefit is it to Wexford?
“He’s sent off, goes to the sideline, next play it’s blown up.
“They (Wexford) should have been given at least 10 or 20 seconds to benefit.
“If you ask refs, players, managers, guys involved in this, do they think it’s working?
I don’t think it is. We have problems defining it, we have problems implementing it. I don’t think it’s consistent. I’m sick of it to be honest with you.”
Kernan insisted that it’s time to reward teams with frees within scoreable range for offences of this nature.
He said: “If you have a 30-metre penalty, a 50-metre penalty given about deliberate drag-downs like that one there, the referee moves the ball into a scoreable position and Neil Flynn knows he has to make a proper attempt to tackle.
“It’s too easy for him to go in and try to rugby-tackle a man to the ground.
“He knows he’s too far out to score, all he has to do is step off the field and let every single Kildare player get behind the ball.
“Wexford weren’t going to score anyway then, there’s no advantage at all to the attacking team. It didn’t cut out cynicism so what’s its purpose?”
What do you think of the black card in its current guise? Is there anything that can be done to fix the current flaws with the rule? Leave your feedback in the comments section below…
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
