THE STATEMENT made yesterday by Dublin defender Barry Cahill is one that could resonate through Gaelic games should the experimental rules be retained in their current format: “It’s frustrating because you know there is 20, 25 minutes left in the game and you have to go off for something fairly innocuous.”
Cahill was speaking about his dismissal in the last National Football League encounter against Galway and believes an imbalance exists in the system, with referees more lenient on forwards. “It’s more difficult for defenders. If you see a forward giving away a bad free, usually it goes unpunished but if it is a defender the easy option is to give him a yellow card.”
So, did you feel hard done by against Galway? “I did a bit, all right. I think one of the Galway players was after getting yellow- carded for tackling me. A couple of minutes later their wing back was coming up the pitch, gave off a hand pass and I basically tried to get out of the way and he ran into me. I think the referee saw it but the linesman flagged it.”
The fear amongst players remains: the incorrect interpretation of an official can change the course of a high profile game.
Cahill has been tracking inter-county forwards since 2002 and was voicing an opinion widely held among defenders on an issue that comes before Congress for ratification next month.
Cahill and his ilk were not consulted before it was introduced under the guidance of former Leinster Council chairman Liam O’Neill on January 1st. Granted, Kildare midfielder Dermot Earley did provide the player input in the formulating process and while there has been criticism of the new rules, especially in hurling circles, there is growing support for the manner in which they have stamped out the petty fouling that threatened to derail both hurling and football as sporting spectacles.
“The idea behind it is very good,” said Dublin manager Pat Gilroy yesterday. “It is trying to get rid of the silly fouls that kind of annoy everybody but I think what is happening is the ambiguity with the neck tackle, in particular, guys are being a bit cautious about actually tackling at all and I don’t think that is the intention of the rule at all.
“I think it is a very good idea because getting a straight red for some of the things is a bit harsh, yet the guys should probably go off the field all right but replacing him is a good option. I think it just needs a bit of fine tuning but the idea behind it is sound.
“For this time of year there has been a lot of fairly good games played, which would be a bit unusual so it must be partly to do with the rules.”
Gilroy noted the common sense of referees tweaking the rules themselves by generally edging towards a caution (black book) rather than a dismissal (yellow) for a dodgy tackle around the neck.
O’Neill and GAA head of games Pat Daly have both stated a reassessment and potentially some fine-tuning of the rules will take place once the league is complete.
Cahill leads Dublin against Donegal in Ballyshannon this weekend with the management set to finalise the role of captaincy next month. Despite losing their opening matches to Tyrone and Galway, Gilroy is relatively content with progress, having watched over recent challenge match wins over Monaghan and Laois.
There is also the valid excuse of a lack of players due to injury and Kilmacud Crokes’ progress to the All-Ireland club final.
“All we are concerned about is going out to win that match. You can’t really think about what happened in the past, we just take each game as they come. We are after winning our last two, albeit they were challenge matches, so we want to keep that going now.
“(Donegal) have some very good players as well and there are no easy teams in Division One, which is good for us because you are getting good challenges. I think it will be a different type of challenge. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot against Galway a little bit. The Tyrone match was a very open game. This will bring a different type of challenge.”
