Whenever a red card is wrongly dished out, or whenever it’s not given when it should be, we don’t cry about getting rid of the red card.
No, we blame the referee.
There’s nothing wrong with the logic of a red card and it’s purpose. It’s there for a reason and it serves to limit what footballers can and can’t do – for the most part.
Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with the idea of the black card. The only problem is the God-awful interpretation of it.
Just because a ref mightn’t have the balls to send someone off with a straight red when they see a clear strike, it doesn’t mean that the rule and its punishment should be done away with completely. Imagine the chaos that would ensue then.
“Ah, it’s not working. There’s too much confusion. It’s too inconsistent. Let them at it.”
Just because, in its third ever season, the black card is being applied as loosely and as sporadically as the ‘too long’ rule, we shouldn’t just suddenly accept cynical play back into our lives.
Its reason is good and it is bloody important and it is a lot simpler than what’s being made out. It’s there to stop cynical play. Cynical play. That’s it. A professional foul as our cousins across the Irish Sea would call it. When you see it, give a black card. What’s the issue?
But a bigger problem isn’t the different interpretations of it; it’s the pundits who have hindsight, replays and analysis in their favour and still call it wrong.
On Saturday night, Ciarán Whelan, Tomás Ó Sé and Dessie Dolan were unanimous in condemning the decision to dish out a black card to Lee Keegan. They were unanimous.
This is how the conversation went with Des Cahill on The Saturday Game.
Whelan: “We’re back to the same thing -“
Dolan: “It’s the weekly slot.”
Whelan: “We are all against it, I think it’s ruining the game. You have fans getting at each other’s throats during the game.”
Cahill: “Was Lee Keegan’s a black card.”
Whelan: “I don’t think it was a black card.”
Ó Sé: “I don’t think it was.”
Dolan: “No, I wouldn’t agree with that.”
So we are against punishing cynical play?
I’m not even sure Lee Keegan would’ve agreed with them.
The problem is that these pundits are turning every flashpoint into a grey area when the incident they referred to couldn’t have been blacker or whiter.
Dean Rock intercepts the ball and it spills. Connolly reacts quickest and it opens up for him.
Keegan is caught, it was a mistake behind him that he couldn’t really legislate for.
He gets a better grip of Connolly who has a march on him.
The forward is breaking so he reaches with his other arm.
Connolly doesn’t even have the ball and he’s being held back.
The pair go over before the forward can get it up and decide what to do.
Dublin are denied a clear scoring chance inside the Mayo 21′, Maurice Deegan gives Lee Keegan a black card.
He’s then told afterwards that it was the wrong call.
Why was that the wrong call? Connolly was going through, he was impeded, he was denied. It’s exactly why the black card rule was introduced.
The question you have to ask yourself is simple: Was that a foul? If you agree that it was, then in that position, in that circumstance, it has to be a black card.
Connolly was denied going through. The same way Conor McManus was denied by Cavanagh in 2013, the same way Andy Moran was denied in the first half by John Small.
Small survived because of a bad decision. That’s not a problem with the black card. That’s a problem with the decision-maker.
The only thing that could be done to improve the rule is remove the excess around it. Take out the verbals element of it for one. Have it that it can only be applied to the defending team too.
So, when a team is attacking – from anywhere on the pitch – if a player or a runner is deliberately pulled back or pulled down or illegally blocked, it’s a black card. And that’s it.
Any referee who can’t deal with that should have the same questions put over him as he would for not dealing with a red card incident properly.
Any pundit who can’t deal with that should be blamed squarely if cynicism comes through this black card period and prospers even more.
They should also be hit over the head with a rule book for good measure.
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