The black card isn’t the problem. It’s the application of the rules.
By the 74th minute of the 2017 All-Ireland football final, Dublin had already used up their full quota of substitutions.
After that, after six subs, the rules state that any player issued with a black card cannot be replaced – it’s as good as a red, essentially.
So if anyone is guilty of one of the cynical fouls flagged in the black card rules and they have no more subs left to make, the team will lose players.
In theory, the referee should be running around dishing out black cards for every single foul that warrants it. So, if every Dublin forward was said to be dragging down Mayo men in injury time, what was stopping the official hitting six of them with black cards? Dublin couldn’t replace any at that stage so, immediately, they’re at a massive disadvantage and the offence is punished accordingly.
It’s not up to the referee to decide if sending off that many players is mad or not. It’s up to him to apply the bloody rules.
And there are rules there to ensure that cynical play cannot be systematic and reoccurring. After three black cards are issued, the next player who incurs one will also be unable to be replaced. So, if the rules were actually enforced, there are measures there to stop carry-on like this.
It seems @Woolberto and @ConanDoherty have solved the problem of cynical play in the GAA 👀🏐 #TheGAAHour pic.twitter.com/84mxkXgsYO
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 29, 2018
The same goes for Mayo against Donegal. If this is becoming a theme in the last minute, where players are being grabbed and cynically brought to ground for the final play so they can’t receive a kickout, the referee is not just entitled, but obliged, to dish out a black card to every single offender.
If even just one ref did that and left it 15 v 11, or whatever, for the last attack, it would take a very stupid side to risk it ever again.
Now, granted, the black card needs to evolve. It’s supposed to be there to stop cynical play but has hamstrung itself with its wording. The fact that you have to pull down an opponent, trip them or hit them with a third man tackle to pick up a black is just naive and completely neglects something as simple as pulling someone back and holding them by the jersey.
As long as they’re not dragged to ground then, by definition, the black card will not protect attackers from cynical play when it should be there for every single cynical foul if it’s going to even try to serve its purpose. A common sense rewording would sort that out. Well, that, and an urgent move away from referees who refuse to actually apply the rules – and those who, instead, want to use their own initiative and gut feeling for how a game is going.
These acts that are ruining games can be punished and stamped out immediately. It’ll just take a strong referee to actually have the spine to do it.
