Tír Eoghain vs Maigh Eo, Healy Park, March 26th @3pm

[blewuporstuffed]

Nobody else called it on this thread, so maybe I'm wrong, but I would have blown for a free when Parsons shouldered Sean Cavanaugh at the end. Front-on rather than side-on. The ref seemed to take great glee in giving those two late frees against Tyrone for over-carrying!

I wouldnt have given Kirby black. Yellow for me. SeanC's funny dance on the ground afterwards was....funny.

Great winning point by McLoughlin.

That was pretty scary, with what I thought initially was just a glancing blow, did to Cillian.

I have no problem with the Parsons challenge, but it certainly wasnt a free out for over carrying either.
The Mattie Donnelly one was incredibly harsh too, he should have had a free in fro a couple of tugs at the jersey previously.

Overall it was an inconstant and overly fussy performance by the referee, something that is pretty common as the game gets harder and harder to referee.

[BennyHarp]

I am caught between two minds:

1. The regularity of days were we hit 12+ wides doesn't look like being solved at all and we'll never make an impression on the AI stage until that is fixed.

2. We are creating loads and loads of opportunities to score but aren't taking them. Some day we'll click against a top 3 side and blow them away.

Btw, Sludden was sorely missed in the 2nd half, he was the exact type of player we needed to take game by scruff of the neck. Petey Barre was poor (compared to his very high standards) and, worryingly, Matty Donnelly's form is all over the place.

Our wides problem isn't being solved at all because the type of 'chances' we create and shots we take are not high percentage shots. If you look at the wides we hit yesterday from play, the only one i can remember where the player wasn't under much pressure and would've been expected to score was Colly Cav's miss towards the end. Alot of the other ones are potshots from wide or out around the 45 (eg. McNamee trying a Stevy O'Neill esque effort out on the left  wing near the endline with his left foot) which you might score 40% of the time but can't be relied upon to win games consistently at this level.

I wrote up here about this problem after the Monaghan game. That night in the first half everything we kicked went over and we looked great but our style of play still wasn't lending itself to creating easy chances, or more importantly goal chances. The only goal we've scored in the league is still McCrory's scrappy effort v Dublin and having watched all our games to date we haven't exactly been missing many glaring goal chances either.

I agree with this. When our attacking play is so labourious and slow then, in modern football, you are giving the opposition time to funnel back and any chances we create are then going to be either pressurised by sheer numbers or pot shots from distance. We scored a great point in the first half were I think Donnelly or Sludden hit a diagonal cross field pass to Cavanagh who quickly hit another diagonal pass to McCurry who had created a bit of space for a relatively easy score. The speed of the passing created the opportunity and we looked very dangerous. With inside forwards like McCurry and Bradley we need to hitting them much quicker and from different angles to at least give them a chance of getting a shot away. If we are going to play a game whereby we keep the opposition to a low score and hope to eek out a 1 point victory then we need to be much more clinical - yesterdays game was too much like last years quarter final for me and we should be learning from that game. I was never convinced we were going to get our noses in front.

[blast05]

Nobody else called it on this thread, so maybe I'm wrong, but I would have blown for a free when Parsons shouldered Sean Cavanaugh at the end. Front-on rather than side-on. The ref seemed to take great glee in giving those two late frees against Tyrone for over-carrying!

I wouldnt have given Kirby black. Yellow for me. SeanC's funny dance on the ground afterwards was....funny.

Great winning point by McLoughlin.

That was pretty scary, with what I thought initially was just a glancing blow, did to Cillian.

I have no problem with the Parsons challenge, but it certainly wasnt a free out for over carrying either.
The Mattie Donnelly one was incredibly harsh too, he should have had a free in fro a couple of tugs at the jersey previously.

Overall it was an inconstant and overly fussy performance by the referee, something that is pretty common as the game gets harder and harder to referee.

Re the over-carrying .... in fairness to the ref, i though he was consistent in pulling up on that point all day long  .... at least 3 or 4 times for each time (some looked harsh but was consistent). When it came to the Cavanagh one (after Parsons tackle), i was immediately sure of it being a free out in light of the earlier decisions.

[moysider]

I thought the Cavanagh one might have been for an illegal hand pass. If it was over carrying it was harsh.

[Smokin Joe]

I thought the Cavanagh one might have been for an illegal hand pass. If it was over carrying it was harsh.

Yep, Cavanagh threw the ball to avoid being blown for over-carrying IMO; and that is what the free was for.

[omagh_gael]

BemnyHarp, agree on your McCurry point. That was an excellent move started off by tigerish defending and overturning the ball. The key thing was the type of long ball played into FF line. It was diagonal and low trajectory giving the forwards a much better chance at the end. I noticed that the long ball into FF line improved slightly yesterday but still a lot of improvement required to increase the return from it. There was still the odd long, floated punt into Bradley etc that leaves it nearly impossible to gather and, secondly, allows the defender to clean them from behind.

[saffronandblue]

He was brought to the ground in the tackle and according to the rules was fully entitled to throw the ball.  It's a rule that never seems to be interpreted correctly.  You can even throw the ball into the net if you have been knocked to the ground in a tackle.

[Zulu]

You can never throw the ball legally.

[saffronandblue]

Yes you can and even score from it too...........them are the rules.

[Zulu]

Sorry but you can't. If you're in possession of the ball and knocked to the ground you can play it away on the ground. You can never ever, legally, throw the ball in any circumstances.

[saffronandblue]

That's not how the reffing courses down here would say.  I couldn't believe it myself, nor could anyone else and it was brought up on more than 1 occasion for clarification.  I presume it's to do with health and safety.  Obviously it's interpretation but that's from a course only 3/4 weeks back.

[Zulu]

I've never heard of that rule or seen it in the rule book so I presume it was a misinterpretation by the course tutor. If it is a rule I must stop telling the kids I coach to stop throwing the bloody ball!!

[saffronandblue]

According to the tutor, who has reffed All-Ireland's and the other 3 refs that were in attendance it only applies when you are brought to the ground in a tackle and and upon hitting the ground it has to be got rid of immediately and can thus be thrown at that moment in time.  It was even more shocking to find out that you could score from it too.  There were 20 at least in the room and all were in shock.   I know in ladies GAA you can play the ball on the ground to get it away from you but this was certainly a 1st for me.  If I'm wrong, and I'm certainly no expert, then so are a lot of imminent refs who will be reffing in the League next weekend.

[BennyHarp]

According to the tutor, who has reffed All-Ireland's and the other 3 refs that were in attendance it only applies when you are brought to the ground in a tackle and and upon hitting the ground it has to be got rid of immediately and can thus be thrown at that moment in time.  It was even more shocking to find out that you could score from it too.  There were 20 at least in the room and all were in shock.   I know in ladies GAA you can play the ball on the ground to get it away from you but this was certainly a 1st for me.  If I'm wrong, and I'm certainly no expert, then so are a lot of imminent refs who will be reffing in the League next weekend.

Are you sure it wasn't a rugby league course you were on?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Nobody else called it on this thread, so maybe I'm wrong, but I would have blown for a free when Parsons shouldered Sean Cavanaugh at the end. Front-on rather than side-on. The ref seemed to take great glee in giving those two late frees against Tyrone for over-carrying!

I wouldnt have given Kirby black. Yellow for me. SeanC's funny dance on the ground afterwards was....funny.

Great winning point by McLoughlin.

That was pretty scary, with what I thought initially was just a glancing blow, did to Cillian.

I don't have too much issue with the challenge of Cavanagh although I think the ref was extremely quick to call him on travelling when he got rid of the ball almost as quick as he could.

Harte was about to pick it up 25 yards from goal with a bit of space.