Aidan O'Mahony = Pathetic

[muppet]

Good post Billy.

[AZOffaly]

I think it's certainly worse than two lads beating each other. (Despite what the media would say). This is cheating. Throwing slaps in a row is just stupidity or temper.

AZ you normally speak sense but this is where we disagree.

I cannot accept feigning injury is worse than trying to cause injury.

The thing is that it is assumed by some here that throwing a punch is instinctive or a reflex action and therefore, while no one is arguing against sanction, it is an action understood to be in 'hot blood'. The  argument against O'Mahoney is that he somehow planned this.

I would guess that when O'Mahoney got his slap the first thing on his mind was to knock the Cork lad's block off, but he hesitated and before he knew what had happened he found himself diving.

This happened in the 2001 Connacht Final. Ray Connelly and Frankie Dolan squared up before Dolan went down clutching his head. The ref arrived taking out his book but Dolan copped himself on, jumped to his feet and admitted to the ref nothing had happened. The still ref sent off Connelly.

Most people felt Dolan had redeemed himself by trying to prevent the sending off despite his stupid reaction.   

Muppet, what I am trying to say is that I do, rightly or wrongly, differentiate between a row breaking out (as opposed to a sneaky elbow or something, which is worse again) and someone deliberately and consciously going down to get an opponent sent off.

Two lads getting thick at each other, and having a row, is to my mind silly, but understandable, and at least honest.

A lad falling poleaxed to the ground is just very poor sportsmanship, in fact it's downright cheating. (I agree with Billy, this diving lark is symptomatic of a wider sportsmanship issue, along with things like mouthing/taunting).

Cheating with an aim to directly get an opponent sent off for no, or little, reason, is very low in my book.

So, just to clarify, or re-iterate. I would differentiate between a row with two participants and a sneaky attempt to hurt, and maybe injure someone. The latter is far worse than the former. The latter is also worse than the playacting I'm talking about, but the playacting itself is an attempt to make the referee think that the opponent has made an attempt to hurt you. That's in the middle of that scale of 3 things.

In terms of 'palatibility' me, I find fighting the most easy to stomach, playacting to get lads in troubls a lot harder to stomach, and downright thuggery on the pitch as the hardest to stomach.

Edit: That's hard to read now that I look back. Very rambling Here's a scale of things that I can think of on the top of my head that I have seen. Maybe it'll be easier to see where I stand.

Sickening - Peadar Carton v Paul Curran last year, Loughrea lad v Joe Canning 2 years ago.

Hard to watch/very annoying - Aidan O'Mahony v Cork, Paudric Clancy v Down, etc etc.

Stupid and mildly dirty - Darragh O'Se v Cork, Ciaran Whelan v a few , Doran Harte v Tyrone

Stupid and rash - Dublin v Meath in the league, Armagh v Tyrone in Croker.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Here is a question that will surely get the posts flying...





Whats the difference between diving and taking drugs?

[Jinxy]

Wait, I think I know this one.......

[AZOffaly]

Taking drugs gets you high but Diving is very low?

[muppet]

In terms of 'palatibility' me, I find fighting the most easy to stomach, playacting to get lads in troubls a lot harder to stomach, and downright thuggery on the pitch as the hardest to stomach.

Fair enough AZ.

I am not a million miles from that as each of us can come up with a new scenario which would put a new slant on each point.

In Mayo's Match against Tyrone after Mortimer palmed in his goal, his marker up to then who had been beaten up a stick, rammed him into the stantion in the back of the goal and held him there. The ref did nothing until the very next attack when he dragged Mortimer down yet again whereupon he received his only yellow card of a disgraceful performance.

If Mayo people comment it is seen as sour grapes. The lack of comment by neutrals suggests it is acceptable.

Someone mentioned the Micky Ned clip. After the unbelievable violence of that clip the astonishing thing is Mikey Sheehy wanted to take the free before anyone from either team had bothered to notice that O'Sullivan was unconcious. Would they have noticed if he was swallowing his tongue.

In fairness we have progressed since those days.

Here we have 20 pages on a guy pretending to be hurt while the systematic thuggery goes on without comment from anyone other than the offended county.

Is it the Gaa that needs to cop on or us?

[muppet]

Whats the difference between diving and taking drugs

Diving gets you in hot water quicker.

[Billys Boots]

Whats the difference between diving and taking drugs

Diving gets you haunted - taking drugs gets you medals.

Cheating with an aim to directly get an opponent sent off for no, or little, reason, is very low in my book.

I agree AZ, and Cork (O'Neill etc.) were every bit as guilty of this as O'Mahony.

[RadioGAAGAA]

What county are you from yourself? Are any of your players fond of over-reacting?

Down and yeap.


Damien Rafferty got Martin O'Rourke sent off for f**k all in Clones this year.


(Although O'Rourke is another diver that was repaid with karma)

[AZOffaly]

I didn't see the O'Se/O'Neill incident, other than the grainy image (once) of Darragh swinging a paw into his gob. The O'Mahony incident was much clearer to me. I'll take your word for it. Either way, as I said, I prefer to get away from the specifics at this stage, and onto the general problem around player behaviour and honesty on the pitch. It's a man's game, so be a man. And don't confuse that with being a coward who hits lads sneaky elbows or boxes.

[zoyler]

Only reading Muppets comments now.  The TV pictures clearly show the linesman showing the referee the open hand for a slap and explaining exactly wehat happened - he clearly saw the whole thing. However I don't know if he told the ref about O'Mahony roaring as he clearly was before the slap.

Regarding the risk of a serious injury being confused with a dive the resposibilty would clearly lie with those divers who have brought doubt into the minds of officials and supporters.

[feetofflames]

Muppet. No better medicine for a diver than he got.  It might get these guys to stop or at least give them a reason to dive.  Given pain or diving Ill take pain.  The messga going out to divers is if you are going to dive you might just get caught in a net. 

[muppet]

Only reading Muppets comments now.  The TV pictures clearly show the linesman showing the referee the open hand for a slap and explaining exactly wehat happened - he clearly saw the whole thing. However I don't know if he told the ref about O'Mahony roaring as he clearly was before the slap.

Regarding the risk of a serious injury being confused with a dive the resposibilty would clearly lie with those divers who have brought doubt into the minds of officials and supporters.

Good man, do you think that would stand up in the inevitable court case against the Gaa?

[GalwayBayBoy]

I agree AZ, and Cork (O'Neill etc.) were every bit as guilty of this as O'Mahony.

Do we actually have any evidence of this? All we can see is grainy footage of O'Se lamping O'Neill which presumably the referee saw as he sent him off. How does this make O'Neill comparable to O'Mahony?

[zoyler]

No but it would not count against those who made a genuine mistake!  Any person playing a field gane  is taking a risk - if pretending injury is a common practise any court would have to allow for that in accessing resposability in any incident.