I don’t get the “key player isn’t going to be the instigator” we’re hearing from Whelan. Yeah, somebody might be getting at him but that doesn’t give him licence to step outside the rules of the game. Also, if a ref sees two players wrestling, it would not be right for him to decide who probably started it.
We haven’t yet seen how that particular incident started btw.
I agree, the ref went with his umpires though, forwards can be cute hoors also, conning a ref is standard. From the footage I’d have black carded the Tyrone lad. I don’t do the two yellows card thing, unless it’s actually two yellows!
You’ve instigators and retaliatory fouls which will result in yellows or worse. But I’ll generally dismiss second yellows or hop balls even.
Is there other footage going around? On the footage I've seen none of it showed who started it. They both stumble into screen with fists full of each others shirts. So if you, as a ref turned around and saw the two guys wrestling you'd just book one? ref can only act on what he saw or the Umpires tell him.
I can only call what I see, if the umpires see something different then you consult them, again you don't have to go with their call and they can't tell you its a yellow card offence, they can only tell you what happened, but as I said on the footage that we all seen, the Tyrone lad looked like he wrestled him to the ground, black card offence. grabbing shirts is not an offence, whoever pulled who to the ground takes the card
If that's the correct interpretation of the rules then I don't know what to say. They were both wrestling, but because Clifford hit the ground it's a black card? Maybe I've been away from playing the game too long but that seems nonsense to me.
The correct interpretation of the rules are what I’ve already said, consult your umpires if they have called you in for an off the ball incident. It’s very simple, even if you’ve not played for a while that was always the case. I stated you can only go with what you saw, and from the footage I seen (granted it’s didn’t show the start) but if I see a player drag a player down and if he’s on top logic would tell you the defender dragged him down.
I’d like to see the footage again, I’m sure someone has it on a phone. Dragging someone down off the ball should be a black card, so giving the yellow was the wrong call in my book