TYRONE boss Mickey Harte believes match officials need to be more vigilant in trying to establish the aggressor when two opposing players become embroiled in off-the-ball tangles.
In the early moments of last Sunday’s Allianz League Division One tie between Tyrone and Cavan, Mattie Donnelly and Killian Brady ended up wrestling on the ground.
From the press box it was clear Brady instigated the physical confrontation – but both players received yellow cards from referee David Gough.
When two players are seen wrestling on the ground the match official invariably dishes out a yellow card apiece in a bid to keep the peace rather than identifying the original aggression.
“It’s not the first time Mattie got a yellow card in those circumstances,” said Harte.
“I remember one time in a Championship match he got one for the very same reason… It’s back to this old word ‘consistency’.
“If somebody notices the thing starting then they should really see who was the initial aggressor and I do feel there should be a difference in how you deal with that.”
Ronan McNamee and Darren McCurry were black-carded in Tyrone’s convincing win over Cavan.
Harte, though, was mystified by McCurry’s 54th minute dismissal for something he allegedly said.
Although verbal abuse is covered by the black card, it’s rarely cited to remove a player from the field of play.
“I think Darren was accused of saying something or other,” said Harte.
“That was in response to something that was said to one of our players, so how that works I don’t know. The [Cavan] guy got saying what he said but Darren got nailed for what he said.”
