Yellow card fever

[Jinxy]

I saw a man booked today without having made any contact whatsoever with the player he was supposed to have fouled.
Tellingly, the general reaction of the crowd around me was to sigh and roll their eyes as if to say "Sure this is the way the game has gone".
Defenders are picking up yellow cards for nothing in the first 15 minutes which severely impacts on their ability to do their job for the rest of the game as one false move and they're gone.
Once a player from either side has been dismissed in this fashion the rest of the players then have free reign to half kill each other for the remainder of the game as the ref bizarrely doesn't want to be seen as having lost control.
It's obvious that the refs are acting under instructions but it's really sucking the life out of games at this stage.
I was watching the first Meath-Kildare replay in '97 the other night.
Men going hell for leather for every ball, no one giving an inch and 100% commitment from every player on either side, safe in the knowledge that you weren't going to get a soft yellow card.
Is it possible to get that back or has the game now moved beyond that point?

[neilthemac]

I referee
and I play some football and hurling

I want to know, are these inter county referees so slow and inept that they cannot spot when a player has conned them???
It is pretty obvious to me from the way a player falls or drags another player down if they are playing for a free or to get an opponent booked.

Players are going out to con referees. And they are being encouraged to do so by their managers.

I mean, there are linesmen there too. A ref should go and ask them what happened.

[orangeman]

I referee
and I play some football and hurling

I want to know, are these inter county referees so slow and inept that they cannot spot when a player has conned them???
It is pretty obvious to me from the way a player falls or drags another player down if they are playing for a free or to get an opponent booked.

Players are going out to con referees. And they are being encouraged to do so by their managers.

I mean, there are linesmen there too. A ref should go and ask them what happened.

You're right there Neil -  if the ref is unsure about what did happen, he should ask if his umpires or linesmen saw what happened - this would save a lot of trouble and help the referee as well.