All-Ireland Club Semi Finals

[Jinxy]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I would bet you any money that Richie will never be done again for a body-check, for the rest of his playing days.
He learned the hard way.
And I'll wager a lot of players will bear this particular example in mind next time someone is running towards them in the early stages of a game.
The take home message is quite simple.
Leave him run or you're gone.

[BennyHarp]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I agree with most of this but a fairly minor foul (albeit extremely stupid given the new rules) in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat and no real chance of physical harm to the opposition hardly deserves a sending off.

Some of these offences are just as dangerous (or in the case of feigning injury - a bigger blight) as the foul Feeney commited yet the player only recieves a yellow card and can play on.....
1. To block or attempt to block with the boot when an opponent is kicking the ball from the hand(s).
2. To prevent or attempt to prevent an opponent from lifting or kicking the ball off the ground by striking an opponent's hand, arm, foot or leg with the boot.
3. To engage in any other form of rough play.
4. To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury

[AZOffaly]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I agree with most of this but a fairly minor foul (albeit extremely stupid given the new rules) in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat and no real chance of physical harm to the opposition hardly deserves a sending off.

Some of these offences are just as dangerous (or in the case of feigning injury - a bigger blight) as the foul Feeney commited yet the player only recieves a yellow card and can play on.....
1. To block or attempt to block with the boot when an opponent is kicking the ball from the hand(s).
2. To prevent or attempt to prevent an opponent from lifting or kicking the ball off the ground by striking an opponent's hand, arm, foot or leg with the boot.
3. To engage in any other form of rough play.
4. To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury

This one should be a black card too.

[Jinxy]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I agree with most of this but a fairly minor foul (albeit extremely stupid given the new rules) in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat and no real chance of physical harm to the opposition hardly deserves a sending off.

Some of these offences are just as dangerous (or in the case of feigning injury - a bigger blight) as the foul Feeney commited yet the player only recieves a yellow card and can play on.....
1. To block or attempt to block with the boot when an opponent is kicking the ball from the hand(s).
2. To prevent or attempt to prevent an opponent from lifting or kicking the ball off the ground by striking an opponent's hand, arm, foot or leg with the boot.
3. To engage in any other form of rough play.
4. To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury

The black card is not meant to address dangerous play though.

[BennyHarp]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I agree with most of this but a fairly minor foul (albeit extremely stupid given the new rules) in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat and no real chance of physical harm to the opposition hardly deserves a sending off.

Some of these offences are just as dangerous (or in the case of feigning injury - a bigger blight) as the foul Feeney commited yet the player only recieves a yellow card and can play on.....
1. To block or attempt to block with the boot when an opponent is kicking the ball from the hand(s).
2. To prevent or attempt to prevent an opponent from lifting or kicking the ball off the ground by striking an opponent's hand, arm, foot or leg with the boot.
3. To engage in any other form of rough play.
4. To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury

The black card is not meant to address dangerous play though.

Yes, but should dangerous play not incur a greater sanction than cynical play? Being sent from the field of play for a fairly harmless body charge, yet being allowed to stay on the field for a dangerous tackle doesnt quite seem right to me. But thats the way it is and it looks like the games are better for it.

[AZOffaly]

Well I suppose dangerous play would carry the risk of a red card, which is obviously worse than a black for your team. But I think diving is just as cynical as the actual fouls designated as such.

[Keane]

It's not like what Feeney did is a hard thing not to do. It was literally one of the dumbest things I've ever seen anyone do on a football pitch. If I was a Castlebar man this morning I'd be spending a lot more time chewing Feeney out than ruminating on the black card.

There's absolutely nothing positive about off the ball body checks, they've been an utter blight on gaelic football for 15 years or more, we've finally eradicated them in almost 100% of cases, and yet because some moron gets himself sent off for one in the first few minutes of a big game we're lamenting the rules, talking about sin bins and all this stuff.

Just nonsense, give up your auld body checks and you won't have to spend any time on the sideline at all, be it 10 minutes in the bin or 55 minutes after a black card. I guarantee you we won't be seeing too many repeats of Feeney's stupidity yesterday for the remainder of the year, and thank god for that.

I agree with most of this but a fairly minor foul (albeit extremely stupid given the new rules) in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat and no real chance of physical harm to the opposition hardly deserves a sending off.

Some of these offences are just as dangerous (or in the case of feigning injury - a bigger blight) as the foul Feeney commited yet the player only recieves a yellow card and can play on.....
1. To block or attempt to block with the boot when an opponent is kicking the ball from the hand(s).
2. To prevent or attempt to prevent an opponent from lifting or kicking the ball off the ground by striking an opponent's hand, arm, foot or leg with the boot.
3. To engage in any other form of rough play.
4. To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury

I really don't agree that feigning a foul or injury has been a bigger blight on the game than body checks.

It may be something that makes people more annoyed when they see it, but body checking had become a constant and systematic feature of the game at all levels all over the country. Players diving here and there is not on the same level in terms of how badly it affected games over a long period, although it should certainly be a black card as well.

The reason why I think something like Feeney's tackle should 100% be a line-worthy offence is the sheer contempt it shows for the rules of the game. It might not be dangerous to another player's safety but it's something you can only do when fair play and respect for the rules is something you just don't give a damn about. It's utterly cynical.

Even worse that he did it in an area of the pitch where there was no real scoring threat to my mind, as it just shows such a bad attitude, why do it at all in that position?

As I said in my other post, I could have sympathy for someone black carded early for what was seen as pulling down an opponent or similar, because you can see someone managing to make a complete hash of a genuine tackle ending up on the end of a black card, anyone who gets one for a body check I find it much harder, because it's something you can so easily avoid that ending up in that situation can only be because you decided to wantonly act the maggot.

[INDIANA]

In real time it looked a lot less cynical, in slow motion it looks savagely cynical.

Some players may need to be sent to a good dog trainer in order to change instinctive habits of conduct.

Agreed. I was sitting close to it in the corner lower cusack/davin and it didn't look as bad, thought he would go though at the time.

Cast iron black card fellas. You either have a rule or you don't. You can see the ref saying to him that there was nothing he could do and it was the correct call

[highorlow]

This is proof that the black card will be seen as a poorly thought out attempt to clean up the game. As some others have mentioned the sin bin would have been a better rule.

The fun will really start come the championship when the refs start interpreting the rules differently. A typical example over the weekend was in Castlebar on Sunday where I was full sure that Cillian O'Connor was going to see black for a high challenge that culminated in a drag down. The ref gave him yellow instead. He went on to get our 4th goal which finished Cork off.

[Jinxy]

I don't think there was ever that much of a problem with diving anyway, but with the advantage rule it doesn't really make sense to go down unless you are actually genuinely dragged down.
Now, the more cynical amongst you will say that players will go down in order to get the tackler a black card but from what I've seen so far the refs are making a clear distinction between a player being dragged down and a player 'losing his balance' after being tackled.

[Main Street]

In real time it looked a lot less cynical, in slow motion it looks savagely cynical.

Some players may need to be sent to a good dog trainer in order to change instinctive habits of conduct.

Agreed. I was sitting close to it in the corner lower cusack/davin and it didn't look as bad, thought he would go though at the time.

Cast iron black card fellas. You either have a rule or you don't. You can see the ref saying to him that there was nothing he could do and it was the correct call

I'm glad you have come around to your senses Indiana and agree with us, that it was a cast iron black card for a savage cynical block

[Denn Forever]

I thought a completion started under the old rules would still be refereed under those rules until finished

[screenexile]

That's a fair point about inconsistencies.

The ref in the Derry Dubs game on Sunday was doing his best not to issue one and was handing out yellows for blatant black card offences.

Our corner back who eventually got sent off should have got a black card early in the 2nd half. Likewise Philly McMahon should have definitely seen black earlier.

It seems to be ticking over OK for now but it will be interesting come the Championship when the stakes are higher what will go on!!!

[Tubberman]

I thought a completion started under the old rules would still be refereed under those rules until finished

I would have assumed the same. Unless they are treating the 'All-Ireland series' (semis and final) as a separate competition.
If that's the case, it would have started in the new year when the new rules were in place.

[whitey]

Overall I think the rule is well intentioned, but like all rules it needs to be interpreted clearly and implemented consistently.

I know the players and coach are supposed to know the rules, but would it not help all involved for the referee to attend each teams final session prior to a final, to give the teams a clear indication as to what he will be looking for.

I seem to recall that the great Kerry team of the 80s always invited the referee to attend a session in the lead up to the final.....but I could be completely wrong on that