At the time, it didn’t look good for the Patrickswell man.
Clare and Limerick’s Cusack Park clash didn’t live up to the hype at the weekend. A bizarre first half incident that saw both David Reidy and Tom Condon sent off appeared to stall the game as a contest.
While Limerick man Condon undoubtedly deserved the line, Reidy was the unluckiest man in Ennis to follow him.
His immediate reaction to seeing red screamed of a man hard done by.
Reidy was more than hard done by and this card is surely on the way to being rescinded now.
We’re well used to seeing referees send a second man off in a balancing act in recent years; it certainly appeared James Owens wretched for this tactic on Sunday.
It all started off under the flight of Clare half back Jamie Shanahan’s pointed effort. With Diarmuid Byrnes picking up David Reidy in the full back position, the Limerick man was left sprawled out on the ground grimacing after what appeared to have been nothing more than a brushing of the pair’s bodies as Reidy watched the sliotar fly over his head and over the bar.
There certainly seemed to be nothing untoward on Reidy’s behalf and that left Byrnes wide open for accusations of diving.
Treaty corner back Tom Condon turned around to see his man curled up in pain, and as is GAA players wont, he wasn’t going to stand for this. In a cowardly, ‘hard man’ act, the third man in gave Reidy two dirty belts of the hurl, one into the privates.
The incident all stemmed from Byrnes, seen above face flat, going down so forcefully after jostling into Reidy. If Byrnes had stayed on his feet, none of this madness would have followed.
Speaking on Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show, Kilkenny legend JJ Delaney gave the Limerick half back the benefit of the doubt. Not renowned for going down easily, JJ believes it would have been foolish for a back man to take the risk of feigning injury, in turn leaving Reidy unmarked in front of his own goals.
“I can’t understand why he would dive. What benefit was it to him?” Asked JJ.
“He was six yards out, he left him on his own. I seen a tweet from Jackie (Tyrrell) there the other night and he said, ‘if you’ve half a leg and you’re one on one within the six yard box, you still don’t go down.’
Unless your leg is literally hanging off you, you should never go down for nothing when your inside your own 14 and one-on-one and the other team is on the attack!!!
— Jackie Tyrrell (@MrJackieTee) June 17, 2018
“If he was trying to get him sent off or trying to win a free, it was a dodgy, dodgy thing to do. I wouldn’t be recommending it.”
It just wouldn’t be a Kilkenny player to take a dive. We all remember the story of former full back Noel Hickey racing to get a hook in on a Waterford attacker moments after he’d pulled his hamstring. As Jackie Tyrrell said, a back man shouldn’t go down unless their leg is “literally hanging off.”
There was nothing to suggest Byrnes’ leg was hanging off, as he got up to rejoin the game a while later.
Show host Colm Parkinson agreed with JJ.
“It was so far off the ball. It wasn’t even on eye-line. There’s no way he could have gone there. It would have made no sense.”
So did former Dublin hurler Michael Carton.
“I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. When you’re 13 yards out, in front of your own square, you’re not going to go down unless you’re in a heap,” said Michael Carton.
Nonetheless, JJ was displeased with the way the Banner man appeared to have been blatantly ordered for an early shower just because his opponent had been.
“Why does he Reidy get sent off just because Condon got sent off? The umpire didn’t react when it happened straight away, so why, if it’s reactionary should he be sent off after then? He got a dig and got sent off.”
You can listen to JJ, Wooly and Michael’s thoughts on the weekend’s action right here.
