SEAN CAVANAGH broke his silence on Monday over his controversial dismissal in last Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Mayo.
The Tyrone captain called for a greater role for umpires and linesmen in calling the referee’s attention to the targeting of attackers. Cavanagh and Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly, two of the game’s marquee forwards, were both sent-off in their respective quarter-final ties at Croke Park, prompting renewed calls for action to address the alleged targeting of key players.
The Red Hand skipper was booked just before the beginning of the second-half and received a second yellow in the 15th minute: “Sometimes in these big games, in my opinion, linesmen and umpires just don’t take those calls as much as they should do,” he said.
Cavanagh revealed he had been appealing to match officials over constant infringements each time he tried to make a play: “I had brought it to the attention of a few of the linesmen and umpires that, any time you were trying to make a run, the run was being checked and you were being pulled and dragged,” he said.
“It does become frustrating at times because I was trying to make the point that, 90 per cent of the time, it’s not the forward who wants to drag a defender. It’s the other way around. It was difficult then to try and get on the ball and try and get the space to have an impact on the game. That was frustrating. But that wasn’t just unique for Saturday. It has been happening for a long time in our game and, in my opinion, it’s probably something that needs to be stamped out.”
The Moy man also revealed that, following his dismissal, he was unable to watch the closing stages of a tense battle, which Mayo eventually won by a single point to set up an All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary: “It was horrible. I still haven’t watched the last five or six minutes of the game,” he said.
“I was on my knees praying. That’s the only thing I could cling to that last five or six minutes. I heard a couple of guys saying that we had a few chances to equalise the game and I was just praying that the game would have been equalised and I would have had a chance to redeem myself to a certain extent and to help the guys in a replay.”
The bitter disappointment of the events that unfolded at Croke Park last weekend have gripped his being for the past few days: “It’s just a horrible, horrible feeling," Cavanagh added.
"The last couple of days, I have just been completely numb with disappointment, probably the most disappointed I have ever been in my career, the fact that I couldn’t be out there to help the guys. With the experience I have had in a number of close games over the years, I would be reasonably confident I might have been able to manufacture something to maybe help us to get the draw.
“But that’s the cruel sport we play, at times. It’s just hard to stomach and the fact that we had been unbeaten for almost a year, to go out in those circumstances… And knowing there’s so much more in the team, it’s a horrible feeling, but it’s part and parcel of life and time will have to heal.”
