Michael Murphy and Aidan O'Shea, present day powerhouses of Gaelic football, surely the most influential players outside the Dublin and Kerry panels, get fouled more often than not.
Donegal and Mayo people were beginning to believe that match officials saw this as acceptable behaviour simply because the pair of them are so physically imposing.
“That’s the way it’s always been for Aido, even in club football,” said Cillian O’Connor, his team-mate, speaking at the Electric Ireland minor championship launch. “When you’re 6ft 4in and 15 or 16 stone, for whatever reason, you’re allowed (sic) treat them a little bit rougher or whatever.”
Donegal manager Rory Gallagher felt obliged to highlight this concern after the recent Tyrone victory when Murphy had been hounded and kept scoreless from play (he landed a soaring 0-3 from placed balls).
Driving performances
The complaint seemed to have resonated enough for the aforementioned pair to reinforce their status as domineering figures in this summer’s championship with towering, driving performances during last Sunday’s respective defeats of Galway and Armagh.
Armagh’s resistance was surprisingly clueless and soft but Galway came at Mayo with a physicality not witnessed in almost a generation. O’Shea was fouled a lot but, in turn, was duly rewarded by referee Pádraig Hughes.
“He was always going to be a handful wherever he is going to be playing. There were times there when they had no choice but to foul him. The frees they conceded were the right thing to do or they could have been goals,” said O’Connor.
“He’s that type of player, he is going to draw fouls. He’s always coming in for a little bit of treatment. Yesterday was probably the first time in a while that he was given the frees after what he takes from the opposition.”
O’Connor kicked eight of his nine free shots at the posts. Galway committed 31 fouls, to Mayo’s 22.
“They probably would have felt we were more physical than them the last time in Pearse Stadium so they were going to be keen to front up, and they definitely did,” added O’Connor.
“They were probably a bit loose in the tackling inside their own 45 and conceded frees they wouldn’t be happy with. We were expecting that treatment and capitalised on the frees and got our scores.”
Galway picked up six yellow cards, two black and a late red – but at least the mugging of their most physical specimen is no longer going unpunished.
“Yesterday he probably got the frees he deserved when he was being pulled and dragged. He’s a handful.”
The other obvious lesson learned from the Connacht semi-final is the welcome rise in standards within the province.
“Yeah we were definitely aware of that from watching Galway and Ros’ and Sligo even in the league. They’ve come on in leaps and bounds, whatever margin or gap there was in the last few years, has definitely closed. I think probably we are all training and preparing at the same level now. I think there’s a level of organisation and professionalism throughout a number of counties now.
“We knew it would be close. Any Mayo Galway game, there’s always that little sense of unpredictability. You don’t really know what’s going to happen and the fact that it was in Galway as well. . we were conscious it was going to be close.”
