Persevere with black card – it has merit
EVEN THOUGH it helped slam the door on my own intercounty career, I have no issue with football’s black card.
The pity was that I was going well in the 2015 All-Ireland semi-final when I clashed with Tyrone’s Conor McAliskey 40 metres from goal and the last thing I had intended was to foul myself out of the game.
But on a wet day I slipped and he turned me. I left my hand in and ended up pulling him to the ground.
I could say it was instinctive and certainly the thought of a black card did not enter my mind, yet I was aware in that split-second that I had to stop him from creating a goal chance.
That’s a hard instinct to kill and while you don’t set out to commit a cynical foul, the bottom line is that there has to be a consequence when you do.
The Championship is only just up and running and already we have seen an outcry, not least over the decision to black card Monaghan’s Kieran Hughes inside 10 minutes last Saturday night.
There have been claims that his hand trip on a Fermanagh player was instinctive and not cynical, but how do you tell the difference?
The following day, we saw Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor commit a foot trip – in the process doing a poor job of trying to make it look accidental – and he gets away with it.
And that’s the core issue. It has to be applied to the letter of the law every time.
Unfortunately that is not happening, but that is not reason enough to give up on a rule that has served our game better than it has been given credit for. And I say that as someone who never started a Championship game again after seeing black.