The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The better players deserve better protection
Paul Brennan says that better vigilance all round from match officials is the least we expect and the players and the game deserves
FROM our vantage point from the opposite side of the field it was impossible to guage Peter Keane’s reaction to David Clifford’s second yellow card and subsequent sending off, but by the time he came to talk to the assembled media some 15 minutes in front of the clubhouse at Pairc Arthur Mallon in Edendork after the final whistle there was more an air of despondancy about the Kerry manager, rather than anger or even frustration.
Keane has been around football long to know that the best players on a team will be the most targetted for the ‘special’ stuff, but the Kerry boss was clearly peeved at having his team captain dismissed in such unjust circumstances. That Clifford should be cynically wrestled to the ground in a headlock, and then pinned to the surface by an opponent who - to this observer at least - took advantage of a break in play and the match referee being preoccupied with sanctioning two other players, was bad enough; that the innocent party would then be yellow carded along with the aggressor by the referee, working off the word (or not?) or an umpire who was mere metres away from the incident, was simply adding insult to injury. But when that innocent player was already on a booking and therefore sent off on a red card, the whole situation becomes all the more ridiculous and intolerable.
Keane, clearly, wasn’t prepared to get into finger-pointing or a blame game, but when a neat summary of what happened between Clifford and Tyrone substitute Ben McDonnell, and the consequences for both, was outlined, the Kerry manager said: “Yeah, that’s your read of it... That would be my read of it too. It’s easy pickings to say, look there’s two fellas involved (so) I’ll give the two boys two yellows, you know. Because (Clifford) had picked up one in the first half then you’ve two yellows makes a red.” Keane’s deep exhalation at the end said it all really.
Asked if he felt his captain was a “marked man” Keane was typically circumspect in his answer: “I suppose whether it is this year or last year or the year before, sure look, he’s a good
player, sure you’re going to mark the best player no matter who he is.”
The National Referees Committee chairman Willie Barrett went on record on Monday to state the obvious: “When a player is on a yellow card, particularly a high-profile lad and very good player, (he) would definitely be targeted, no question about it. Referees would be fully aware of that, there’s no doubt about that, and their officials. That would be part of the talk in the dressing room prior to the game in relation to finding any early off the ball incidents and dealing with them at an early stage in the game.”
That’s all well and good but it would appear that the umpire nearest to the Clifford-McDonnell incident missed Kelly’s pre-match briefing, especially the bit about being “vigilant in penalising off the ball fouling”.
Sure, referees miss incidents in open play, and when they’re dealing with a player or players during a stoppage in play it’s nigh on impossible for them to be vigilant to what the other 28 or 29 players around them are up to. That’s where there two linesmen and four umpires come into play - or should come into play. It’s that lull period in the game - when the ball isn’t in play - that the other officials need to be most vigilant. Idle minds make the devil’s work, so when players aren’t concentrating on the action and the ball some of them are not adverse to getting involved in what can only be described as acts of shithousery.
With Kerry two points down after 65 minutes - and Barry just about to be sent to the sin-bin what possible advantage would David Clifford think he could gain for himself or his team by getting into a wrestling match with a Tyrone substitute who had just come on four minutes earlier? Even if Clifford wasn’t on a yellow card it would make no sense; the fact that he was already in Kelly’s notebook would make the captain a very stupid man, and that’s something he most certainly is not.
Already in his couple of years as a senior footballer Clifford has shown remarkable restraint in the face of some strong provocation from opponents. It’s only a fortnight, remember, since he quite literally had the jersey almost torn fully from his back, and yet he had the composure to keep his head when all around him were losing theirs.
The old ‘trick’ of the referee penalising any sort of coming together of two players by issuing two yellow card is, unfortunately not an old trick at all; it remains the default action of almost every referee from club right up to senior inter-county matches.
It’s at best a lazy cop-out by a referee who can’t or won’t make a better informed decision, but at worst it penalises an innocent player who is victim to the worst of the dark arts, and it’s costing players - and it’s usually the more skilful ones - dearly.
Kerry lost a game last Sunday by a point that they may well have won had Clifford stayed on the field. Those dropped points could cost Kerry a place in the League Final or, worse, consign them to relegation.
To shrug one’s shoulders and say ‘ah, these things happen’ isn’t good enough.
Umpires and linesmen can do better. They must do better. Willie Barrett also spoke of umpires being a specific type of match official, different to referees and linesmen, in that they have a unique set of skills to do the job.
Waving a flag or signalling a wide ball is part of that work but it’s not the total of it. The least they can do is keep a closer eye on the players in the very situations when it’s clear, now, that the messy stuff can and does kick off.
The game is owed that much.