DUBLIN STAR EOGHAN O’Gara should be cleared to play in the All-Ireland senior football semi-final against Kerry on 28 August.
That’s the view of The Sunday Game panellists Tomás Ó Sé and Aaron Kernan having studied Saturday’s quarter-final flashpoint involving Donegal’s Neil McGee.
O’Gara slapped McGee with an open hand and was shown a straight red card.
If a one-match ban sticks, he’ll miss out on the repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final clash between Gaelic Football’s heavyweights.
But former Kerry star Ó Sé described O’Gara’s dismissal as “farcical” and insisted that the red card should be overturned.
“This is farcical, a slap. If that bothered Neil McGee, it was like swatting flies.
“I think it’s farcical, it should be overturned. Eoghan O’Gara is an easy target any time he comes in. I saw it, I was at the match and from the moment he came in, there was niggly stuff going on between the two of them, handbags stuff to be honest with you.”
And Kernan said: “That will be appealed this week and can’t imagine it wouldn’t be overturned.”
Ó Sé acknowledged that Diarmuid Connolly’s sending-off for two yellow cards was correct but added that Michael Murphy could have walked too after catching Dublin’s Brian Fenton high with a closed fist, an offence that saw the Donegal man booked.
And Ó Sé noted: “There’s a lot of talk about Connolly – I think Connolly is targeted before games. I think fellas are picking at him, the Aidan O’Sheas, the Michael Murphys, the Sean Cavanaghs, the marquee players, it’s coming into our game a little bit.”
On the Murphy episode with Fenton, Ó Sé said: “He (Murphy) comes in with the closed fist and catches him dead on in the jaw.
“Fenton could have been going down…I don’t think Michael Murphy meant to go in there saying ‘I’m going to hit this guy in the head’ but the way he tackled with the closed fist was very high. He could easily have got a red card.”
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
