OVER THE WEEKEND, a number of payers were sent-off while others were somewhat fortunate to stay on the field.
Shane McGuigan and Niall Daly were dismissed in controversial circumstances during the Derry-Roscommon tie in Division 2.
In the top flight, Tyrone lost skipper Padraig Hampsey picked up a black card in the opening period against Dublin and was sent-off in the 38th minute when he was booked for shoving Cormac Costello on the concrete in front of the stand.
“Costello threw the ball over the fence wasting a bit of time, I’d say Hampsey saw red and just levelled him,” remarked Marc Ó Sé on the latest episode of The42 GAA Weekly.
“I’d say Costello nearly wanted him to do it because he came out sheepishly. If Costello had left the ball down it would have gone just over the line and Hampsey would have got the ball. I’m not saying it was right, it was bad.
“He led him straight into the barrel and took the bait. Hampsey shouldn’t have done that. He needs to be more disciplined.”
The All-Ireland champions were fortunate not to finish with 13 men when Michael McKernan’s punch into the midriff of Brian Fenton went unnoticed by the officials.
In the Dr Hyde Park clash between the top two sides in the second tier, 18 cards were issued by Seán Lonergan.
Rossie centre-back Daly looked to be harshly dismissed on a second yellow, and McGuigan’s dismissal arrived after he was hauled to the ground by his marker Brian Stack in the final moments of the game.
Derry won a free but with their free-taker given his marching orders, Emmett Bradley missed a chance to win the game.
“Referees are dishing out yellow cards now for absolutely nothing, if you ask me,” said Ó Sé.
“They’re dishing out yellow cards, some aren’t even free kicks. There are incidents that happened in the game that he did call right but the referee is going to look back on that game…he had an absolute disaster.
“The big thing for me with the referees is there’s no consistency. There’s some referees that leave things go a small bit, there’s others that done leave anything go. The bite is gone out of games in terms of what’s acceptable.
“There was one tackle that particular Niall Daly put in, maybe it was his reputation, but he got a second yellow. That didn’t merit a second yellow. For me, it wasn’t even a free-kick.
“I’ve often found this. I played in the full-back line all my life. The best referees are the ones that are vocal, the ones that will tell you why there’s a free. You see some referees and they’re dogmatic and they just point the hand and give a free-kick, they won’t communicate with you. What happens then is frustration builds up within a player and the player is likely to do something out of pure frustration.
“It’s the good referees that will say, ‘No Marc you pulled him back there.’ It’s the ones that make hand gestures saying why the foul was – that actually calms the player in my view.
“What happens now is referees are not communicating with players and as a result frustration builds up.”
To listen to the full episode, go to members.the42.ie.
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