Good summary of the game above from Lone Shark. Marys showed a lack of ambition that was ultimately their undoing.
The scenes at the end were just apalling. As a lover of all things gaelic football, I am getting completely fed up with having to look at this kind of rubbish dragging the game through the mud.
The early reporting of the end of the match is inaccurate in that it gives the impression that the ref blew the whistle while the ball was in the air and travelling over the bar. In actuality, the 45 was taken (very poorly) and the whistle went just as a Mary's player won posession facing away from goal completely surrounded by defenders. NUIG immediately stopped and started celebrating and then Mary's kicked the ball over the bar.
The referee was immediately surrounded, jostled, verbally abused, harangued and harrassed by Mary's players and their coach (not Paddy Tally) who was at the forefront of the dishing out of abuse. It seemed lost on them all that having played for 60 minutes in perfect conditions, 40 of the minutes against 14 men, they were unable to score more than 5 points. They had a free shot at goal from 45m to tie the game at the death and failed to get it within 25m of the target. Yet the defeat was the referees fault.
I didn't witness the later scenes on the approach to the dressing rooms but it sounds even worse than the immediate aftermath of the game. I am of the opinion purely on the basis of what I saw that Mary's should be thrown out of next years competition. The current sanctions dealing with this kind of thing are clearly not enough of a deterrent. Many players and officials (and spectators) appear to feel completely entitled to abuse referees in whatever manner they see fit for any perceived injustice visited upon them.
A culture of respect for referees and ultimately for the game itself has to be developed. This is a priority issue and far more important than payment to managers despite what Messrs. Cooney and Duffy might think. The alternative is to have games overshadowed every week by reports of brawls and baiting of referees. Great and all as the game is, it cannot withstand such constant negative publicity.
The scenes at the end were just apalling. As a lover of all things gaelic football, I am getting completely fed up with having to look at this kind of rubbish dragging the game through the mud.
The early reporting of the end of the match is inaccurate in that it gives the impression that the ref blew the whistle while the ball was in the air and travelling over the bar. In actuality, the 45 was taken (very poorly) and the whistle went just as a Mary's player won posession facing away from goal completely surrounded by defenders. NUIG immediately stopped and started celebrating and then Mary's kicked the ball over the bar.
The referee was immediately surrounded, jostled, verbally abused, harangued and harrassed by Mary's players and their coach (not Paddy Tally) who was at the forefront of the dishing out of abuse. It seemed lost on them all that having played for 60 minutes in perfect conditions, 40 of the minutes against 14 men, they were unable to score more than 5 points. They had a free shot at goal from 45m to tie the game at the death and failed to get it within 25m of the target. Yet the defeat was the referees fault.
I didn't witness the later scenes on the approach to the dressing rooms but it sounds even worse than the immediate aftermath of the game. I am of the opinion purely on the basis of what I saw that Mary's should be thrown out of next years competition. The current sanctions dealing with this kind of thing are clearly not enough of a deterrent. Many players and officials (and spectators) appear to feel completely entitled to abuse referees in whatever manner they see fit for any perceived injustice visited upon them.
A culture of respect for referees and ultimately for the game itself has to be developed. This is a priority issue and far more important than payment to managers despite what Messrs. Cooney and Duffy might think. The alternative is to have games overshadowed every week by reports of brawls and baiting of referees. Great and all as the game is, it cannot withstand such constant negative publicity.