LIAM RUSHE ADMITS that he was lucky not to see red in Sunday’s heartbreaking semi-final defeat against Cork and says he owes Pa Horgan an apology.
Dublin were already down to 14 men and trailing by a point when Rushe lashed out at Horgan right under the nose of referee James Owens.
The centre-back pleaded his case and miraculously escaped with a yellow card though Cork still made the extra man count and booked their place in the All-Ireland decider on 8 September.
It was only when he watched the video back in the cold light of day on Monday that Rushe realised how bad the incident was, describing it as “like a scene from Gladiator.”
“There isn’t a shadow of a doubt, I would have been put off in any game,” he said yesterday.
So what did he say to get himself off the hook?
“I said, ‘If you’d blown your f***ing whistle, I wouldn’t have pulled back.’ They were my words at the time.
“I looked at it again, I saw a nice slow-motion GIF online and I suppose I should apologise to Pa Horgan. Thankfully, I didn’t do him any damage.
“I was just frustrated. He was holding my arm and my hurl so…”
He added: “I didn’t think I would [be sent off] to be honest. I didn’t realise it was as bad and then I saw it and I realised that, yeah, it’s like a scene from Gladiator really.
I was frustrated thing weren’t going our way. I was being held. It was annoying me and he [Owens] wasn’t blowing his whistle so I tried to get him off me. And unfortunately, just as he let go, I swiped back and it looked absolutely awful.
After a long winter of reflection Rushe expects the bulk of Dublin’s panel to return next season. If manager Anthony Daly sticks around too, he feels they have every chance to “crack the code” and deliver the capital’s first All-Ireland since 1938.
“We felt all along that we were close. I felt for five years that we were close. It just took us a while to get it all together.
“I’d be disappointed because you get a limited number of opportunities in life. That’s only my second [All-Ireland semi-final] in five years so in the rest of my career I might get two more, max.
(L-R) Owen Lennon, Bernard Brogan, Liam Rushe and Cillian O’Connor with Lenovo “Best of the Best” winner Sean Buggy, from Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, in Croke Park yesterday. (Brian Lawless / SPORTSFILE)
“If you look at it that way they don’t come around that often and I’d be disappointed in that fashion. You’d wonder would you ever get as injury free a season again. I know we’ve had whole campaigns marred by injuries the last few years, but this year we got away virtually scot-free.
“Hopefully we’ll get the same next year, but we’ll have to see.”
