There’s nothing more annoying.
The whole of Tipperary and many of the wider hurling public bemoaned the red card that was issued to Premier County midfielder Ronan Maher in his side’s clash with Dublin in Croke Park on Sunday.
The county’s former midfielder Shane McGrath summed up the general bemusement at the decision.
If Ronan Maher has been sent off for that (first yellow was a joke) what’s Danny Sutcliffe still doing on the field 🤔 #AllianzLeagues #Tipperary
— Shane Mc (@Shaneytweet) March 25, 2018
In fairness, it was hard to blame referee Sean Cleere for this one. In real time, it looked like Maher had just up-ended Dublin forward Ryan O’Dwyer with a reckless arm around the neck. By the books, this would justify his issuing of a second yellow card to the Thurles Sarsfields club man.
At a closer glance, it was clear as day that Tipperary native O’Dwyer had made the most out of it, and that’s putting it lightly. Maher was slightly careless with his high tackle, but O’Dwyer, like so many players around the country do, ducked down into the challenge and then had a slightly exaggerated reaction when the contact did come.
It’s a classic trick employed by players all over. The lads got chatting about it on Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show, and there was a general agreement that Maher was hard done by.
“It looked very harsh to me,” began Wooly.
“Ryan O’Dwyer, it’s not that often you see hurlers go to the ground like that. There was nothing in it, he put his hurl around neck, that’s not a yellow. I don’t think a fella should be getting sent off for something like that.”
O’Dwyer’s former Dublin teammate Michael Carton hung his man out to dry. The O’Toole’s club man claimed that it’s nothing out of the ordinary for Dublin’s full forward to go down as if he was shot. But in fairness to him, he is a combative player and his aggressive style ensures he’s involved in more wars than most in a game.
“No, there’s an Oscar in there for Ryan. He can be a bit theatrical at times. You’ll see him on the ground about ten times a game with a physio around him, but he does throw his body on the line. He’s in the mix of things. There wasn’t much contact made,” said Carton.
JJ Delaney sees players pull off the trick in every second game. it’s a fool proof plan and referees haven’t really copped it yet.
“It looked bad more than anything. Every player around the country has made that foul for themselves as well, when you see an arm there, you’ll wrap it around your head and you’ll jump back.
“You’ll get the free all day every day. Are you hurt that much on the ground? You’re not, but you make the free for yourself whereas the opponent shouldn’t be getting a card.
It’s similar enough to that method of drawing a foul whereby the player in possession advances into the tackle and throws his arm out over his opponent. He drags the opponent down on top of him and it looks for all the world as if a foul has been committed.
It’s all about being crafty in the game situation and Wooly argued that players can make it look like the innocent ‘offender’ has just committed an awful foul.
“It’s actually mad how bad you can make those ones look. If you actually go off your feet, you can make it look like he tried to take the head off you.
“Once you feel that contact there, and usually the contact is enough that it will pull you back. You could get someone sent off and they look like they’re really, really dangerous and they’re not at all.”
O’Dwyer is a cute one.
You can listen to this chat and much more analysis from Thursday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show right here.
