Black card’s limit, a cautionary tale

IN the aftermath of last weekend’s foul-fest in Tralee, Paul Earley’s call for an expansion of the remit of Gaelic football’s black card had pretty much the feeling of bolting the stable door long after the horse had galloped.

He suggested that fouls where players deliberately pull back opponents without bringing them down should have been added after a first season review of the rule.

There is no argument with that but the match in Tralee, which saw 13 yellow cards dished out and only one sent off – Ciarán Kilkenny’s second caution was meaningless as it was taken in the final seconds – showed that not only is cynicism alive and well, it is well protected when yellow is its colour of choice.

Referee David Gough pointed out in that revealing interview last weekend that the black card has made referees job more difficult because the judgement call, as to whether a foul was committed with deliberate intent or was simply down to poor execution of an attempted tackle, still has to be made.

The only answer for that is to treat both black and yellow the same – after all there should also be a price to be paid by those whose poor execution of a skill leads to a serious foul or to a player who draws yellow for repeatedly fouling.

Such a review would also be a timely opportunity to review the black card’s biggest failing, which is that the individual rather than the team suffers for a fouling culture that is often strategic in nature.

The answer to all of that is the employment of a sin-bin which would be a one-fit shop for cautionary offences.