PEN AND STINK ‘Stupid shootout’ shambles blasted by Devenney as he fears for top players being put on the spot
FORMER Donegal star Brendan Devenney has described penalty shootouts as “a stupid way to decide games”.
With no room for replays in the revamped Championship due to be staged between October and December, games that remain level after two 10-minute periods of extra time will be decided on penalties, soccer-style, to ensure a winner is produced on the day.
It’s already occurred on several occasions in pre-season competitions and was built into the qualifiers in recent years but the possibility of the All-ireland champions being crowned in this manner has sharpened minds.
Devenney (right) was also a polished soccer player who turned out for Limavady United and Portadown in the Irish League as well as Finn Harps in the League of Ireland.
In 2002, he was involved in a high stakes shootout with Harps in a relegation/promotion play-off against Longford
Town, which they eventually lost. He recalled: “It was a raucous night and we were 3-2 up (on aggregate) and our playermanager Jonny Speak, he was a brilliant player, gave away a peno. So they equalised, went into a penalty shootout.
“I never really liked taking penalties to be honest. So it went to sudden death and Tom Mohan, who was our captain and a great guy, went up and he missed.
“I was next to hit so I often think of what might have been. You might have been a hero or no one would talk to you for the rest of your life.”
And while Devenney feels the shootout is a natural fit for soccer, he doesn’t believe so for
Gaelic games, especially since frees and sideline balls were allowed to be taken from the hand in the early 90s.
“The penalty thing, what’s that got to do with GAA? To decide a game on it? I think it’s ridiculous.
“It should be kicks from the hands, from 40 yards or something like that, something that players actually do in the game. What has penalties really got to do with our games?
“I do a podcast myself, I interviewed Peter Canavan last week, he’s still talking about the games that got away, the things he didn’t win and I’m like, ‘Peter, come on’ but he’s like, ‘No, I’m serious’.
“You’ve got to think about what we’re actually going to put on boys. Let’s say Donegal play Tyrone, it’s a big
game and somebody misses a penalty.
That’s not the type of thing that’s going to be forgotten.
“So I think that’s a really unfair thing to put on a player, for something that isn’t really in our game at all. For me, it’s a stupid way to decide games.
“You’re asking some guy who may be a midfielder stepping up thinking, ‘What am I doing here? I’m about to hit a ball that could put my county out of the Championship? Why me? Why this?’ There’s going to be a few harsh ones.”
Kerry legend Pat Spillane suggested a next-score-wins arrangement would be a better way to produce a winner, something that Devenney would also be in favour of.
He added: “There’s something about the romantic nature of a penalty shootout, the tension it brings but it’s so unfair on the player so something like a golden score, which is our game, would be much better.
“The art of practicing a penalty kick is a very definitive art. Loads of soccer players at their height, as we’ve seen for an eternity in England, can’t master it.”