O'Byrne Cup semi-finals: So it's the end of the sin bin as we know it. After another decent game of football that gradually descended into chaos, even the man who helped design the experimental rule - Laois manager Mick O'Dywer - was calling for immediate reconsideration.
The result of this O'Byrne Cup semi-final is very much the secondary talking point. Laois deservedly progress to next Sunday's final against Westmeath, but with eight players being sin-binned - four from each side - it was the flashing of yellow cards that again takes precedence in the aftermath. All this in a game best described as serenely competitive.
Addressing discipline problems is a good thing, but it shouldn't take from the flow and basic enjoyment of football and when you have a midfielder in goal for a penalty you know something is not right.
It all ended with an air of true excitement when Stephen Kelly's fisted point edged Laois in front deep into injury-time, but the first question to both managers afterwards was about the sin bin, which at one stage had turned it into a 13 a-side game.
"It will certainly have to be looked at now," said O'Dwyer. "There has to be some change in the format we have at the moment, no doubt about it. We're having a discussion tomorrow night, and I'm hoping there will be a change anyway.
"Maybe referees are over-reacting a little bit. And from a manager's point of view you have to be at your wits end to get players marking players and that kind of stuff. But we still had a good game of football out there. So we'll see."
Kildare manager Pádraig Nolan adopted a similar stance. "There could still be a place for it," he said, "but just not under the present situation. Once the sin-binning started there were players coming and going all the time. I suppose we both had our advantages at different stages."
Yet Nolan still felt the sin bin should at least survive the upcoming league: "Well we've still only had a couple of matches with it. So I suppose we should let everyone have a good go at it, and decide then what we can do."
At least for the opening 25 minutes the crowd got what they'd paid in for. Both sides displayed a healthy state of fitness, with Laois looking marginally sharper. They got the best of the early points through Ross Munnelly and Chris Conway and were up 0-6 to 0-3 on the approach to half-time. Then came the chaos.
First Kildare's John Doyle was sin-binned, followed by Paul McDonald of Laois. Then Ronan Sweeney set up Eamonn Callaghan in front of the Laois goal but his shot was illegally blocked by the foot of Fergal Byron. For that Kildare got a penalty, while Byron was yellow-carded and sin-binned. So Noel Garvan had to stand in goal for Sweeney's shot, which was coolly placed into the lower right corner.
The second half started with 13 from Laois against 14 from Kildare, but that was then balanced out when Aaron Flood was next to get a yellow from Louth referee Paul Finnegan - who was simply doing his job.
It remained terribly confusing from there until the end, with Chris Conway, Mick Wright, Eamonn Callaghan and, finally, Pádraig McMahon also spending their 10 minutes in the sin bin.
Meanwhile, Laois regained the upper hand with Mark Dunne's goal on 46 minutes, pushing them 1-8 to 1-5 in front before Sweeney fisted in a second Kildare goal.
The final advantage fell to Laois when Dunne was fouled in the area, and that allowed Byron to make amends from the penalty spot. While Kildare drew level again, the momentum remained with Laois - and converted into the winning score by Kelly. Not that the close finish was going to become the highlight.
LAOIS: F Byron (1-0, penalty); P McDonald, C Begley, T McDonald; K Kelly, D Miller, P McMahon; P Clancy (0-1), N Garvan; G Kavanagh (0-1), C Conway (0-2, one sideline), R Munnelly (0-3, one free); P Lawlor, S Cooke (0-2), S Kelly (0-1). Subs: N Donoher for Miller (six mins, inj), C Munnelly for Kavanagh, (35 mins), M Dunne (1-0) for Lawlor (half-time), D Brennan for C Munnelly (42 mins), Kavanagh for R Munnelly (62 mins).
KILDARE: E Murphy; M Wright, D Hendy, A McLoughlin; A Flood, M Foley, K Ennis; K Brennan, W Heffernan; D Lyons, J Doyle (0-2, one free), E Callaghan (0-1); R Glavin, R Sweeney (2-2, one goal penalty), J O'Donoghue (0-2). Subs: D McCormack (0-2) for Heffernan (30 mins, inj), T Archibald for Glavin (51 mins), D Flynn for Flood (60 mins), T Fennin for Callaghan (69 mins).
Referee: P Finnegan (Louth).
