Brian Gavin: Handbags in the Croke Park tunnel have become tiresome

When there are two dressing rooms on each side at Croke Park, and bearing in mind the Covid situation, why isn’t one team coming out from under the Cusack Stand?

Mayo's Aidan O'Shea celebrates referee Conor Lane awarding a penalty at Croke Park. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

So one-sided was the Munster SFC final that there weren’t too many talking points although chief among them, was the first-half decision not to black card Jack Barry.

Barry Cassidy didn’t seem to notice that Barry had caught Seán Meehan. I write that with the benefit of a replay, but there was definite contact. If he thought it was high, it should have been a yellow; if it was lower and therefore a body check, he should have been black-carded.

At a time when the game was competitive, it was a real let-off for Kerry, but it became very easy for Barry when the home team assumed control. Kevin O’Donovan was fortunate not to be yellow-carded for a late hit on Paul Geaney after he scored Kerry’s second goal.

Thinking about it, Barry was extremely lenient on Cork as the match went away from them. Brian Hurley stayed on the field despite striking Gavin White. Mark Collins should have been given a black card and Kerry awarded a penalty when he brought down David Clifford.

But Barry couldn’t let everything go, and when Ruairí Deane struck out at Tommy Walsh, the Cork forward was sent to the line. Overall, Barry did a fine job, and could pick up an All-Ireland semi-final.

For Conor Lane in Croke Park, the Connacht final was a feisty affair. We have seen these handbags in the Hogan Stand tunnel so many times now, and it’s getting a bit tiresome. When there are two dressing rooms on each side, and bearing in mind the Covid situation, why isn’t one team coming out from under the Cusack Stand?

At a time when he was flying it, Shane Walsh was dragged to the ground in the first half, which seemed to impede him afterwards, and nobody saw it. There was a harsh yellow card for Damien Comer, and for the Mayo penalty Matthew Tierney was lucky not to pick up a black instead of a yellow as it did seem to be a cynical foul denying a goalscoring chance.

The decision to disallow Ryan O’Donoghue’s goal was a poor one when he was only standing his ground. Conor was harder on Mayo and made the game more difficult for himself, although there was no doubt about the result.

The sending off of Conor Gleeson in the Waterford-Galway qualifier was the biggest hurling issue over the weekend. I felt for Seán Stack having blown for half time before he had the chance to speak to his umpires about the Gleeson-Canning incident.

It reminded me of the time James McGrath and myself were waiting for Davy Fitzgerald to emerge for the second half after he had given a bit of lip at the end of the first half. But Davy got wind of what we were doing, delayed his return to the sideline, and we had to carry on.

With the needle at the start of the second half, Seán should have given out two early yellows to settle things. He eventually did, but could have saved himself the trouble by cutting out the messing as soon as it started.

In Limerick, John Keenan had a fine game. Jack O’Connor’s two yellow cards were justified. There was a line ball as there was in Thurles when Tony Kelly seized on a miss by Tim O’Mahony to score a point, but it should have been retaken.

At the end, John showed a black card to Niall O’Leary for his sin-binning following an earlier yellow card. The black card doesn’t exist in the game, so that was a new one.

It might have been a bit of panic on his behalf, but he controlled the game well and stamped out fouls like Seamus Harnedy’s pulldown of John Conlon.