McEnaney admits refs missing obvious pull-downs

Referees chief Pat McEnaney admits inter-county football referees are missing obvious black card offences for deliberate pull-downs.

Ahead of the first All-Ireland semi-final this Sunday, the chairman of the national referees committee said he is happy that officials are effectively punishing bodychecks with automatic substitutions.

However, he feels there’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to detecting pull-downs, citing Brian Fox’s escape from a black card in the Tipperary-Galway qualifier in Tullamore last month.

“I think we as a group have to hold our hands up on the deliberate pull-down. There have been a number of deliberate pull-downs that we have missed in this year’s Championship, and we can get better at it.

“We missed one, for example, in the Galway-Tipperary game, but I think it’s been a bit synonymous with the Championship. We’re not as good as we are with the bodychecking, and that goes back right to the start of the summer. We need to get more consistent on them.”

McEnaney doesn’t believe it can be as simple as saying referees become lax as the competition develops. He argues the remaining counties have excellent disciplinary records.

With just one black card among Donegal, Dublin, Kerry and Mayo, he said: “The truth is the best teams with good discipline generally come out on top. If you come into a quarter-final or a semi-final, you need to keep your 15 players on the pitch. I can’t think of many red cards we’ve missed. There was a red card in the Munster final (John Hayes) and Cormac Reilly dealt with it. The only ones we have been missing are black cards.”

Although there appeared several cases of borderline deliberate body-checking in the quarter-finals, McEnaney is happy that they are being picked up by referees.

“The black card has been very successful when it comes to body-checking. I’m very happy with the way it is going out of our game.”

McEnaney hasn’t yet fully assessed the All-Ireland hurling semi-finals where there were two cases of suspected faceguard pulls.

However, he argues the decision to send off Clare’s Podge Collins for the same offence the first qualifier game against Wexford early last month set the right tone.

“The one we got in the Clare match, that was a big call for us. The message was out at that time that any messing with the helmet is a straight red card.

“It’s not something we saw last Sunday in the Cork-Tipperary game. Players are aware of that. They run a very high risk grabbing a player’s helmet. That’s the way it should be.”

McEnaney takes heart from an improvement in the discipline of hurling.

“I’m always looking for perfection and that’s what drives you. I think the number of straight red card offences committed have been quite low.

“I think it’s fair to say two or three years ago it wasn’t and we didn’t make the calls on them. Maybe as a result of a statement I made back then that it wasn’t good enough, I think the level of discipline has improved. I’m very happy with that aspect of hurling.”