Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor (right) and Michael Fitzsimons (Dublin) in Croke Park, Dublin yesterday
Let’s face it, there was a big flaw,
In the Dublin team that we all saw,
Too tired at the end,
To fight and defend,
And lucky to keep it a draw.
John Moynes
Pic: Sky Sports
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There were flaws in BOTH teams.
Shocking bias amongst the RTE commentators yesterday.
Hopefully next week we’ll see a better quality game and the win Dublin deserves.
I don’t think a team that gives away 1:08 from frees, has three yellows, a further three asked to leave the pitch, engages in theatrics, throws away a 7 or 8 point lead in the final 10 minutes and has final possession and goes and plays keep-ball in their own 45 really deserves to win any match.
MDMA’s black card offence alone was harsh but the way he goes around indiscriminately slapping by way of a ‘tackle’, it’s hardly surprising he got one.
Keegan initiated the incident that got Connolly sent off but I can think of three occasions where Dublin players obstructed Mayo players off the ball and the Mayo players just got on with it. And he’d already made strong contact with the face of another Mayo player on the ground earlier in the game.
Mind games during the week, Cluxton’s kick outs to the sidelines, and the consistent fouling; it was clear Mayo had Jim Gavin worried. A shame, because if both teams just went for it we could have had 70mins of good football rather than just 10.
In fairness to dublin, at the very end when playing keep ball they had 13 on the pitch which included Cian OSullivan who could barely walk and Alan brogan who didn’t know where he was after a clash of heads.
Shame to see Dublin getting in to off the ball stuff and losing their heads. thought that had been left behind in the early 2000s
What about the Dublin penalty that Mayo should have got a black card for? What about Rory O’Carroll getting his head split open by a Mayo player off the ball?
It was a terrible match totally ruined by Joe McQuillan’s lack of knowledge of the rules of the game.
Fair point markus, ya.
I missed the start of the match ollie so was listening to Radio 1 for the penalty and on viewing the replay the commentators were quite sure it was outside the box, so I wouldn’t really draw attention to that. Can’t comment on the nature of the challenge though, or what happened between O’Carroll and Vaughan (was it?) cos I missed that too. It can’t have been that blatant if no one’s talking about a citing today.
http://www.balls.ie/gaa/dublin-mayo-penalty/306843
Two Gifs there. To call it a black card is a bit much, as well as calling it a penalty.
But I’m not a match official, so whatevs
Pictures from Sky Sports.
Was it for this etc etc.
Two fantastic teams.
When they play football.
It was a battle of wits none-the-less.
Why not play an extra 10 minutes? Let the people get their money’s worth. No, let’s screw them for every cent.
There’ll be extra time in the replay.
The bogus penalty at the end didn’t really help.
: D