MOTION TO DISMISS
Ex-referee Bannon backs calls to change extra-time card procedures
FORMER referee John Bannon has backed the Congress motion that would see all cards carry through to extra time.
Currently, only black cards issued in normal time carry through, though if a team has already suffered a red card in normal time, they would be restored to the full complement.
Additionally, if a player receives a yellow card in normal time and a second in extra time, he may stay on the field as the first yellow card won’t have carried over.
One example of how farcical the inconsistency can be came in last year’s Ulster football final when Brendan Rogers (inset) was issued with a black card late in normal time, resulting in the Derry midfielder missing most of the first period of extra time and his side being reduced to 14 players.
But had Rogers been red-carded instead, Derry would have been able to field 15 players from the start of extra time.
David Gough, who refereed that game, later commented that it was a “bizarre scenario where the most serious infraction, which would be the red card, has a lesser punishment”.
Gough noted: “It would have been better for Brendan Rogers if he’d committed a foul and was red carded so the Derry team could have restarted with 15 players.”
Bannon, who took charge of the 1998 and 2002 All-ireland football finals, is currently secretary of the Leinster referees’ committee and notes how, with extra time now very much in vogue rather than replays, this situation crops up far more often nowadays.
Bannon said: “It’s not like 10 years ago when you only had the odd game going to extra time. “College games, everything is results on the day so extra time is happening so regularly that I often get a phone call to say, ‘John, what’s the story on yellow cards or black cards or red cards in extra time?’ because there’s confusion.
“Having all of the cards carry will help with discipline because if a team get a red card he’s gone for the whole game or the yellow cards carry and it means they’ll be sent off if they get the second in additional time.
“I’m pretty sure most referees would be in favour it.”
The Central Council motion is one of 26 on the programme for the 2024 GAA Congress, which starts this evening in Newry and concludes tomorrow. It will require a two-thirds majority in order to be passed into rule.
Additionally, Central Council has proposed a motion to clarify that extra time is not a new game, another strange anomaly in the GAA’S Official Guide.
“Officially anyway you had to start with a new team list and then you had three more subs,” Bannon explained.
A separate motion from Pearse Og club in Armagh proposes that abusive language to referees be upgraded from a Category III to a Category IV offence, which would essentially see the punishment double from a one-match ban to two.
Bannon said: “I’d agree with that. Twenty years ago when a fella got sent off in the National League he could miss two or three games, get suspended, so it was a severe penalty but over the years it has dwindled to a one-match ban.”