O’Connor believes former Donegal captain Murphy was fortunate to avoid a red card for challenges on Dylan Casey during Donegal’s Division One final win at Croke Park
Donegal’s Michael Murphy and Liam Smith of Kerry(Image: ©INPHO/James Crombie)
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor believed Donegal’s Michael Murphy was lucky to avoid a red card during yesterday’s Division One final victory for the Ulster side at Croke Park.
The Kingdom, who claimed the League crown last season before defeating Donegal in July’s All-Ireland SFC final, were comprehensively outplayed in a match that lacked the intensity of the weekend’s three other football deciders.
Donegal won’t be concerned, however, as they cruised to a commanding 13-point victory. Yet referee David Gough’s choice to brandish a yellow card, instead of red, for Murphy’s pair of closed fist challenges on Dylan Casey during the opening half became a significant point of discussion.
O’Connor concurred with the view that the former Donegal skipper should have received his marching orders.
When a journalist raised this point following the match, he responded: “I agree with you, and you have better eyesight than a few other lads that were looking at it, let’s put it like that. Yeah, so what can I say? That’s what happened.”
McGuinness emphasised that he hadn’t witnessed the incident himself, though he did acknowledge the game had turned “very physical” and called on officials to take firmer action against so-called “screening” and third-man tackles.
“I didn’t see anything of it, to be honest with you,” McGuinness commented regarding the Murphy situation, before continuing: “But the game is very physical out there.
“Going back to the kick-outs, the game is very physical on kick-outs at the moment. There’s an awful lot of blocking going on on kick-outs. There’s an awful lot of physicality going on in kick-outs across all the games.
“There’s an awful lot of screening going on in the attack in third, which I think somebody’s going to get hurt from. I think people are going to people to hand them the ball, and they’re running into people to release people. That’s not in the rule book.
“People are talking in the media. Coaches are talking about screening. Screening is not in the rule book.”
“That’s a black card offence. Deliberately obstructing an opponent by crossing their path constitutes screening. McGuinness believes this issue requires urgent attention before the Championship begins, as he fears a serious head injury could result from such incidents.
“But to your point, the physicality, it’s heavy around the middle. It really is heavy around the middle.”
Despite being pleased with how his team performed, McGuinness quickly shifted focus to the upcoming Ulster SFC quarter-final against Down in Letterkenny at the end of April.
“From our point of view it’s another game, it’s a great game to get under the belt,” he added.
“It was lovely to get back to Croke Park, get a good game and have a good performance level and we go away now and start preparing for Down in the first round of the Championship.”
Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here.