Sport

Nobody occupies the moral high ground

LAST Saturday’s All-Ireland U21 final between Tyrone and Tipperary was a brilliant game of football. In fact, it was the most enjoyable game I’ve covered for the Irish News this year.

It was open. It was hugely entertaining. It was played at an incredible pace and the skill levels of both sets of players were befitting of an All-Ireland final.

In terms of closing out a game, I’ve seen worse. Much worse. In stoppage-time, a Tyrone player blatantly pulled down Tipperary’s Steven O’Brien. The ball wasn’t even in the general vicinity.

In another instance, a Tipp forward appeared to exaggerate his fall in a bid to win a free-kick.

Longford referee Fergal Kelly was seduced enough and awarded the Munster side a free.

Generally, though, the Tyrone players played within the rules in the dying embers.

In the final play of the game, Tipperary’s brilliant midfielder Colin O’Riordan gained possession around the ’45 and was hounded further away from goal by a pack of Tyrone players.

It was a superbly disciplined piece of collective defending.

Kelly is an experienced referee. But Saturday night was not his finest hour. Within the space of a minute there were two clear-cut instances where black cards should have

been issued.

Tyrone’s Ruairi Mullan should have been black-carded after hauling down Tipp attacker Paul Maher. Moments later, Tipperary defender Kevin Fahey felled Cathal McShane.

Astonishingly, no action was taken by Kelly.

The ref also missed a stamping incident involving a Tipperary player in the first half.

The post-match reaction and stinging criticism of the Tyrone players and management was completely over the top.

When the stakes are so high in tight games endings are always messy. The rulebook is at a loss in such instances.

In the closing stages of Tuesday night's Champions League semi-final first leg, Juventus led Real Madrid by two goals to one.

In stoppage-time, Real's Cristiano Ronaldo raced clear but was ruthlessly taken out by Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Earlier, Madrid substitute Javier Hernandez dived to try and win a penalty.

During the 2010 World Cup quarter-final between Ghana and Uruguay, Luis Suarez was derided for handling the ball on the goal-line to deny Ghana a goal in the closing stages of extra-time.

Asamoah Gyan missed the resultant penalty and Uruguay eventually progressed to the semi-finals after a penalty shoot-out.

Ask 100 professional footballers and they would have made the same decision as Suarez.

In the closing stages of the 2005 All-Ireland final between Tyrone and Kerry, Peter Canavan was criticised for rugby-tackling Colm 'Gooch' Cooper as the Kerryman charged towards goal.

“I’ve been pulled down enough by Kerry men during my career,” Canavan said. “If I was as fast as ‘Gooch’, or a few years younger, I would have ran beside him to prevent from getting the return. He was too fast. If the roles had been reversed the ‘Gooch’ would have done the same.

“I would have been as frustrated as him in that situation because you’re losing an All-Ireland final by a couple of points, time’s up and somebody pulls you down.

“It was a professional foul. There was one person that you didn’t want to see on the ball near the goal, so it didn’t take a pile of figuring out as to why it was done.”

This vague notion that Tipperary would have reacted differently to Tyrone in similar circumstances is preposterous.

Had Tipp been ahead by a point in the closing stages they would have protected their lead with the same vigour as Tyrone.

And, like Tyrone, they probably would have committed cynical fouls.

This might be a stab in the dark but there would not have been the same expressed outrage had Tipp closed out the game in the same manner.

Had Tipp won, they would have been lauded for being street-wise. Because Tyrone won they'd brought great shame on the game.

And so the narrative wrote itself when the Red Hands – the convenient panto villains of Gaelic football – won the match.

Persistently negative depictions of Ulster football from southern elements of the media has served to foster the notion among Ulster Gaels that there is an anti-Ulster bias.

It is difficult to refute this Anybody-But-Ulster perception.

But, of course, we’re all paranoid wrecks up here.

In the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final between Kerry and Armagh, Kieran McGeeney was ruthlessly taken out by numerous Kerry opponents.

Afterwards, there was no outcry.

In Paul Galvin’s engaging autobiography, he writes: “I had my run-ins with Kieran McGeeney but only because I had to. He was their main man. I felt I had to stand up to him for my team’s sake. So I did and I took whatever came my way.”

The day after Tyrone beat Kerry in the 2008 All-Ireland final, Mickey Harte granted an interview to press reporters.

It was skilfully turned into an interrogation of Tyrone’s tactics rather than Harte’s crowning moment.

When Dublin beat Donegal 0-8 to 0-6 in that infamous 2011 All-Ireland semi-final, the questions asked at the post-match interviews of Pat Gilroy and Jim McGuinness were markedly different.

Both teams were ultra-defensive, and yet Gilroy was treated with kid gloves and McGuinness was grilled for effectively bringing shame on the game.

Dublin closed out the 2013 All-Ireland final against Mayo in cynical circumstances. Those ugly moments were conveniently airbrushed out.

If the Tyrone U21 players engaged in ‘sledging’ their Tipperary opponents during last Saturday’s final, then that is wrong. To ‘sledge’ is to lack class.

But 'sledging' and the dark arts aren't the sole preserve of Ulster. That's too easy.

The Tyrone U21s are a brilliant group of footballers. So, too, are Tipp. That should have been the dominant narrative.

The Red Hands deserved a bit more respect from everyone after winning an All-Ireland title.

Taking pot-shots at Tyrone and Ulster football from a safe distance away does a great disservice to the media discourse of Gaelic Games.