Brian Gavin: Yellow peril as Wexford and Rory O’Connor can have few complaints on dismissal
Johnny At Inpho/ryan Thurles Confronts Rossiter Murphy On Keith Byrne Pic: Wexford In Saturday Time Half Manager Referee
It’s rare that you see a player these days picking up two bookings for fouls on the same player.
The way hurling and football has gone and the positional changes, it’s rare a player is marking the same opponent for the game.
So it was unusual that Rory O’Connor was dismissed for two yellow card fouls on David Reidy and in the same half. When I say two, the first one, just six seconds into the Clare-Wexford All-Ireland quarter-final, was on the harsh side.
In defence of referee Johnny Murphy, O’Connor gave him a decision to make and going in with an open arm high like that on Reidy, who was in possession, was asking for trouble. We all know the strength of the modern player and it was a risky move even as early as that.
What O’Connor can have no complaints about was the second late foul on Reidy, which saw him sent off. You can only guess that there mustn’t be much love lost between the two.
Minutes earlier, O’Connor had won a penalty, which Lee Chin blasted to the net despite Clare goalkeeper Éibhear Quilligan being yards off his line before the Wexford captain hit the sliotar.
There was no doubt it was a foul by David McInerney on O’Connor. He came across the shoulder and caught O’Connor high and the Wexford forward went to ground. It mightn’t have been one of the listed fouls for a black card per se – reckless use of the hurl, trip, pull-down – but Murphy would have been lambasted had he not given the penalty and put McInerney off for 10 minutes. He also showed good officiating in consulting with a senior umpire of his before making his decision.
Murphy was spot on with a few other calls such as Conor Foley’s slap on Mark Rodgers’ arm, which resulted in a yellow card. A free was given against Chin for handing off a Clare defender. He hit his face but even if he hadn’t, the rules don’t permit a player to do that and Noel Mooney punished a Louth footballer for the same on Sunday.
The feeling about Murphy is he can be fussy but with that yellow card for O’Connor he set the tone for the rest of the game. If Limerick weren’t involved, he would probably be in the All-Ireland semi-final shake-up too but he, Colm Lyons and Seán Stack may have to sit them out and Liam Gordon and Thomas Walsh come into the equation for Saturday and Sunday week’s matches.
Michael Kennedy definitely looks to have a good future ahead of him. The Cork-Dublin quarter-final was tame enough until the end and the only thing that let him down were his umpires who didn’t see that Danny Sutcliffe drew back his hurl on Mark Coleman and should have seen the line.
There was a good bit of needle in the second half. Declan Dalton got a late slap on his ribs from Conor Burke and Tim O’Mahony and Darragh Power were both booked. Kennedy adopted a laissez-faire approach towards the end and gave Dublin as much opportunity to find a goal with long advantages but they could not avail of them as Cork held out.
It was another steady performance for the Tipperary man and you can see All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in the coming years providing he has people working with him.
In Sunday’s All-Ireland preliminary football quarter-final in Inniskeen, I felt Noel Mooney was right to award Louth their would-be winning free. Mattie Taylor caught Craig Lennon in the face and that’s a free anywhere else or any other time on the field.
In the Tailteann Cup semi-finals, Evan O’Carroll was black carded in the first game and rightly so as he tripped an opponent deliberately. Nathan Mullen’s red card put real pressure on Sligo in the second semi-final.
On Saturday, Brendan Cawley gave a composed display in Castlebar and for me is the top three or four football referees in the country. He was going to be tested but he was right with the Mayo penalty as Gareth McKinless foot blocked.
How Derry goalkeeper Odhrán Lynch was yellow-carded in the aftermath was surprising but I can only guess he might have said something to Cawley after he blew his whistle for the spot kick.
In the other preliminary quarter-final between Tyrone and Roscommon, Conn Kilpatrick was permitted to play having had his red card against Cork thrown out by the Central Hearings Committee.
It would have been a tough one for referee Paddy Neilan as he seemed to do everything by the book and the Central Competitions Control Committee backed him up.
Whether it was something technical with his report or the correspondence around the disciplinary matter, it was disappointed to see a referee’s judgement undermined like that.