Padraig O’Hora gets his hair pulled as fly-goalie gets punished in Mayo championship

Chelsea full back Marc Cucurella said at the beginning of the season that, despite having his hair tugged by Spurs’ Christian Romero, he wasn’t going to change his style.

He was not going to cut his hair and that was that. Obviously, having long hair poses something of an occupational hazard when you’re playing a contact sport but it’s a chance some players, Padraig O’Hora included, are willing to take.

This kind of thing happens on the regular in women’s soccer, not so much in the GAA but it did happen in the Mayo senior football quarter final this Sunday, when a desperate corner back opted for the last resort.

O’Hora, who plays centre back for Ballina Stephenites, had bulldozed past a Claremorris challenger and, when he knew he was beaten, the tackler grabbed O’Hora and pulled him back by the pony-tail. To his credit, O’Hora managed to get the pass away and, with the Claremorris ‘keeper gone walkabout, Kevin Thornton finished well to give the Stephenites an early lead.

It was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as they drove onto win by 4-13 to 0-7 to book their place in the county semi-finals. Watch the incident below via Stream Sport.ie.

Goal for @NaStiofanaigh's Kevin Thornton who lead @claremorrisgaa 1-4 to 0-2 on 15 minutes.

✔️Pressure
✔️Turnover
✔️Goal

Good refereeing to allow the advantage but should there have been a card for the foul on O'Hora in the build up?@MayoGAA | @ConnachtGold | @MayoGAATV pic.twitter.com/r1Vp2alKnw

— StreamSport.ie (@StreamsportI) October 2, 2022

Meanwhile, Castlebar Mitchels knocked the reigning champions Knockmore out of the championship as they prevailed by 0-12 to 0-11 in MacHale Park. Ethan Gibbons kicked 0-7 and was the Mitchels’ man-0f-the-match.

There is no mention of hair-pulling in the GAA’s rulebook though it is not allowed in rugby, with the proposed suspensions ranging from two weeks to fifty two weeks.. One famous example involved Brian O’Driscoll with the legendary Irish centre penalised for pulling Wallaby George Smith’s hair in the 2000s.

Smith was renowned for his dreadlocks and hair-pulling was something he had to deal with throughout his career. Former All Black Jerry Collins was another who pulled the Aussies’ hair with Collins’ manager Steve Hansen defending him in that instance.

“If you’re going to have long hair, people are going to be tempted to pull it, I suppose,” said the All Blacks manager.

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