Two black cards in the space of five minutes halted Galway’s comeback against Derry and effectively ended their Division One National Football League clash as a contest.
Derry got off to a blistering start in Salthill, with an early Eoin McEvoy goal helping them to a 1-1 to 0-0 lead after just three minutes of the game.
But Galway were right in it by half-time, when they trailed by 1-6 to 1-4, before then starting the second half as the brighter team.
Padraic Joyce will rue the two goal chances that went a-begging on the back of the resumption, with Niall Daly’s miss particularly disappointing, but he may also point to two black cards that went against his side before Derry strode clear to win comfortably, by 3-10 to 1-11.
First, Kieran Molloy was given his marching orders under the new black card penalty rule which states that ‘a penalty shall be awarded in football when a player is “denied of a goal-scoring opportunity” due to a black card foul inside the 20m line (though not within 25m of either sideline) or within the semi-circular arc.”
A black card foul of course covers deliberate pulls and trips but speaking on The Sunday Game, Lee Keegan felt this was neither.
The former Mayo defender felt that Molloy’s last-ditch slap on Derry’s Diarmuid Baker was a ‘bizarre black card.’
Keegan didn’t feel it qualified as a take-down or a trip and says referee Derek O’Mahony’s decision to cancel the point deploy the new rule and give a penalty instead ‘ruined the contest overall.’
Was it a harsh for a black card AND a penalty to be given against Kieran Molloy here 🤔 pic.twitter.com/fAtNMsjb5X
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) February 25, 2024
“Being brutally honest, I think it’s a bizarre black card,” said the Mayo man.
“For me, it’s not a take-down.”
Former Dublin player Paul Flynn agreed with Keegan, describing it as more of a ‘last-ditch tackle attempt’ than a deliberate trip. But, under the new rule, Derry were given a penalty, which Shane McGuigan scored and Galway were reduced to 14 men.
“It didn’t look like a deliberate trip. It looked like a last ditch swing of the arm.”
Sean Mulkerrin was black carded five minutes later after a collision with Brendan Rodgers, reducing Galway to 13 men.
“It’s gone from a three point game to a five point game on the back of Galway missing two goal chances,” said Keegan, who bemoaned thee consistency of referees over the weekend.
“We had the same incident in the Mayo game, where a penalty and a black card were given to Mayo – it didn’t look like either, but the referee didn’t consult his linesmen or his umpire. It’s that inconsistency which gets people,” he said.
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