KILDARE CRASHED OUT of this year’s All-Ireland SFC in controversy yet again this weekend with defeat to Donegal.
And it’s no mystery why some have christened the Lilywhites the ‘Square Ball County’ following their latest summer exit.
On Saturday, full-forward Tomas O’Connor appeared to have stuck to the letter of the law in striking his effort home from the edge of the square; his celebrations would be cut unceremoniously short however.
Having consulted with one umpire, the referee moved quick to cancel out the green flag raised seconds previously. Just in case you hadn’t seen the ‘perfectly legitimate goal’ according RTÉ commentator Kevin McStay, check it out:
It’s not the first time an interpretation of the rule has worked against Kildare of course. Last year, Down forward Benny Coulter hit this effort in the All-Ireland semi-final, which umpires believed was legal:
Earlier this year, Kildare may have counted themselves lucky when this Graham Geraghty punch was disallowed with seconds remaining in their battle with the Royal County in the Leinster SFC:
And when Kildare lined out against Derry two weeks ago, there was controversy yet again when Enda Muldoon was adjudged to have entered the square before the ball. Skip to 03:35.
Okay, so that is four times in recent games when goals have been controversially allowed or disallowed depending on the judgement by the referee and umpires. So just what is the square ball rule?
Rule 4 (Technical Fouls) of the GAA’s playing rules of football, states:
“For an attacking player to enter opponents’ small rectangle before the ball enters it during play. Exception: (i) If an attacking player legally enters the small rectangle, and the ball is played from that area but is returned before the attacking player has time to leave the area, provided he does not play the ball or interfere with the defence, a foul is not committed.”
Confused yet?
This morning, hurling referee Barry Kelly likened the law to the offside rule in soccer and said it’s almost impossible to judge.
Speaking to Kildare FM, the official said: “You kind of watch two things at once that are not in the same area of vision.
“They’ve proved it in soccer: it is actually impossible to decide whether the player who passed the ball and the player who is onside or offside….to adjudicate on those two things – it’s actually physically impossible.
“They get it right a lot of time, they obviously get it wrong sometimes as well.”