CIRCUMSTANCES prevented me from watching the All-Ireland U21 Football Final live. When I went to view the recording, the final 11 minutes of normal time (plus added time) were missing, due to the lengthy delay caused by two medical emergencies in the crowd at half-time.
However, despite subsequent complaints being made about the winners Tyrone deploying cynical tactics, including `sledging’ and time-wasting, I’m confident that I wouldn’t have seen anything worse than what happened in the first 11 minutes of the match.
Tipperary boss Tommy Toomey talked about Tyrone being “cynical”, and referred to “tackling off the ball” – yet made no mention of one of his players, Steven O’Brien, tripping and then stamping on Tyrone’s star man, Cathal McShane.
Perhaps that’s understandable, as managers rarely criticise their players in public – but perhaps more should have been made of those nasty actions by other observers, rather than highlighting the mean-spirited moans of a beaten manager. Such statements are often heard from losers, they’re not really all that newsworthy.
Yet having supposedly seen so much “off the ball” stuff, it’s strange that Toomey said what he did post-match. Surely he saw what had happened. He wasn’t relying on a recording that only operated for a pre-set time after all.
He was there, watching intently, and the ball had only gone a split-second when O’Brien did what he did to McShane around the 11-minute mark.
First he tripped McShane, then he planted his feet on the Leckpatrick lad’s leg, one studded boot swiftly following the other.
O’Brien wasn’t landing from a leap, his feet were on the ground from before his trip, so there was no excuse for what he did, no sense that it couldn’t be avoided.
Anyone who argues that those actions were accidental must be called Tippi ‘Tipp’ Tipton. Or maybe Tommy Toomey.
If those boots had been on Tyrone feet there’d have been national debates about such violence.
Toomey may well have been doing `an Arsene Wenger’, pretending not to have seen something that his team did wrong – but at least Wenger never, to my recollection, went on the offensive about the opposition after a game in which one of his players had actually been the biggest culprit.
How can you adopt a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude when one of your players has stamped on an opponent?
Tipperary senior manager Peter Creedon sent out a snide Tweet after the final about it being great to be involved with a group of players “who play in a manly way.”
To my mind, there’s nothing manly about tripping an opponent and then stamping on him. Twice.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, `To stamp once on an opponent may be regarded as a misfortune; to stamp twice looks like sheer violence.’
Even a journalist from a Dublin paper who penned a report that hasn’t been forgotten – or forgiven – in Tyrone, about some of this group of players in their 2013 All-Ireland Minor Final appearance, acknowledged that Tipperary, and O’Brien, were fortunate, writing: “Steven O’Brien’s trip and stamp on McShane surprisingly escaped sanction.”
The lack of punishment certainly was surprising as the incident occurred right under the nose of referee Fergal Kelly, who had an unobstructed view.
At the very least, O’Brien should have been black-carded and removed from the pitch, but the truth is he should have been sent off.
Instead Tyrone wasted a lot of time – more than 50 minutes – playing against the cynical O’Brien. They wasted that same time playing against 15 opponents when Tipperary should have been reduced to 14.
Tyrone and McShane could also complain about the Tipperary defender who lunged at him feet first as he was scoring the game’s crucial only goal.
The injury he received from that foul, reckless challenge led to him leaving the pitch early, which perhaps also allowed Colin O’Riordan to dominate in the closing minutes and almost level matters. That wild lunge certainly seemed a cynical attempt to stop McShane scoring what proved to be a vital goal.
Tyrone supporters with memories that go back longer than 2013 may remember the punishment that Gavin Devlin received for a stamp in 2003, on the basis of video evidence. ‘Horse’ was handed a 12-week ban, forcing him to miss five Championship matches, even though he had been yellow-carded by the referee for his action during the National Football League Final. I’ll be astonished if O’Brien receives any punishment.
Tipperary also moaned about encroachment as Ken O’Halloran lined up frees, some of which he subsequently missed. Funny, when Donegal did the same to Tyrone’s Niall Morgan two years ago in Ballybofey most people chuckled, or criticised the goalkeeper for allowing himself to be distracted.
Double standards can’t only apply to Tyrone.
Unlike many Tipperary football followers and others, who appear to be presenting their players as total innocents, I’m not arguing that this Tyrone team are angels. Gaelic football is a rough, tough sport and you have to be streetwise to survive.
Tyrone manager Feargal Logan was honest enough to admit that “there were boys there buying frees on both sides probably”. No doubt about that.
As one rough assessment of how the two teams played the game, Tyrone were penalised for 19 fouls – and Tipperary for 25.
Teams have to stamp their authority on matches – but not literally. I know I’d rather listen to some insults than be stamped on. Twice.
Of the 49 minutes of play I saw, it was an enthralling encounter played in very trying conditions, with both teams giving – and taking – big hits.
As with the big hits, you have to take your defeat with some dignity, especially when one of your team has actually committed the worst offence of the match.
Losing managers moan, it’s what they do, but thankfully stamps are rare occurrences. The truth is that the referee helped Tipperary more than he hindered them.
Tipperary’s former football Allstar Declan Browne showed the right spirit, Tweeting “heartbreaking defeat and hard to accept but let's have no sour grapes, learn from this and drive on.”
Tipperary shouldn’t have been so classless as to prevent the opposition manager from entering their dressing room to offer the traditional commiserations.
And they also shouldn’t have leapt aboard their high horse to look down on their opponents when at least one of their own players had dragged the game down through the mud.
