High time we dived in at deep end of morality
Only technology can save football’s soul
THOSE who believe that Aidan O’Shea had the monopoly on Mayo cuteness last weekend do not know the half of it.
He might have ‘won’ the penalty that left the morally sensitive so enraged that the carpet was worn thin this week from the usual trek to the GAA’s high moral ground, but he was left in the shade when it came to nullifying Fermanagh’s protests.
As their tempers ignited, Andy Moran grabbed hold of the ball with the purpose of a man with goal on his mind and lead in his boots.
In the process, he morphed into a red rag for a herd of raging Ferman- agh bulls as they took it in turns to jaw their good wishes.
Except, of course, when they were spent Moran simply handed over the ball to the real penalty taker, Cillian O’Connor who could as easily have been enjoying the tranquillity at the summit of Croagh Patrick as he spent three uninterrupted minutes visualising exactly where he was going to dispatch his shot.
Well, two minutes and 55 seconds to be precise which was the amount of time that was taken between referee Joe McQuillan calling for a phantom foul and O’Connor exacting maximum profit.
All that proved was that there is little value in only half-learning a lesson.
Back in June, Fermanagh’s Sean Quigley had to wait for three minutes, during which time he had his ear chewed by Donegal goalkeeper Mark Anthony McGinley who would go on to save his feeble kick, before protests subsided.
Three months earlier in a League game also in Ballybofey, and it took over four minutes and two attempts by Mayo’s Evan Regan to convert his penalty in the face of Donegal angst.
What was tiresome this week was the outrage that O’Shea’s dive generated was both misdirected and utterly futile.
To what end did it serve apart from the usual ‘down with that sort of thing’ declaration and that is wearing a bit thin.
There are not too many out there who really believe that it is the duty of players to act as some kind of moral guardians for a game they play to win.
There are none of them sent from their dressing room with the parting salvo ‘go f***ing win, but always be thinking of the children.’
That is not to say that diving is not wrong, but instead of wishing something away that is here to stay it is surely more advisable to protect the game’s integrity with something other than prayers of the faithful.
And it goes far deeper than tackling acts of simulation; few doubt that Gaelic football has not got any easier to officiate but yet little has been done to resource officials with the back-up that is needed.
The exception to that has been the introduction of HawkEye scoring technology, resisted for an age by those who warned that it would disrupt the flow of games.
There are those even in the heartland that is Tom Semple’s sacred sod who would admit that the biggest sense of anticipation that they have been able to bleed from a dry hurling summer is waiting for the Ta or Nil to come up as it was rolled out for the first time.
Above all, nothing beats getting it right.
Of course, human error is one of the hooks which ensure that sport fascinates, but that has never extended to those charged with enforcing the rules and keeping the score.
Paraic Duffy, the GAA’s Director General, this week stated his personal objection to the introduction of a Television Match Official claiming that it would ‘distort’ the nature of games that are designed to ‘flow.’
But yet we have repeatedly witnessed games this summer delayed by protests, either by players nursing genuine grievances or for simply mischievous purposes, so how much ‘flow’ are you really losing?
The key to the use of a TMO is that the engagement of his office would be carefully defined, with Duffy arguing rightly the difficulties that would generate as to where do you start or stop when it comes to what should be reviewed.
The best way to draw up those terms of reference is to leave it in the hands of those who are directly impacted, equip both managers with the right to demand a review with two challenges per game, with the
What was tiresome was the outrage that O’Shea’s dive generated
time spent reviewing then added to the game clock.
Let them spend their challenges on what calls they feel will impact on them and by putting a limit on the number, those challenges would have to be spent judiciously.
It is in effect borrowing from the officiating playbook of American football, but it is one that could travel well.
A case could even be made for a pitch-side booth where a referee could review his own decision in game-time.
The beauty about putting the review call in the hands of the team manager is that the principle stakeholders would have a direct input into the big calls for the price of a minute, rather than be haunted forever by a sense of injustice.
All that it would cost to get the big calls right is a little time, something that is blissfully torched anyhow in getting it ever so wrong.
We have repeatedly witnessed games delayed by protests