Philly McMahon’s explanation of what occurred between himself and Kieran Donaghy stopped a long way short of a a denial.
The corner-back was central to Dublin’s 0-12 to 0-9 win over Kerry in yesterday’s All-Ireland final, out-scoring his vaunted marker Colm Cooper, but one incident has dominated the aftermath of Dublin’s 25th All-Ireland.
With four minutes remaining the Ballymun defender challenged Donaghy for a ball on the ground and immediately afterwards the Kerry captain ran to referee David Coldrick and appeared to indicate McMahon had made contact with his eye area, as the rugby lads say.
The Sunday Game panel’s reluctance to address the issue caused ructions online, but fair play to RTÉ’s GAA correspondent Marty Morrissey, who put the question to McMahon on Morning Ireland this morning.
“It was a slippy day, the ball was on the ground to be challenged,” said McMahon. “I went down to challenge the ball and he’s a big lad, trying to get around Kieran Donaghy is hard.
“It’s the heat of the battle. We’d like to say it’s part of our culture, is humility, and the same with the Kerry lads. What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. We shook hands and that was the end of it.
“We’re grown men, we play a physical sport. At the end of the day, the result is what ends it, we shake hands and get on with it.”
We’ll wait to see what the Kerry camp have to say about the incident, but we may not have heard the last of this.
