The Fogarty Forum: No excuse as Tyrone caught red-handed
Never a group to fudge an issue, the home support booed Mickey Harte’s men off the field after they committed a catalogue of cynical fouls in the dying minutes.
Mark Donnelly, Seán Cavanagh and Aidan Cassidy were yellow carded for downright professional infringements.
Coming exactly a week prior to the black card being given the green light in Congress, Harte said there was nothing wrong with the rule book as it stood: “I do believe that referees have a yellow card to deal with the deliberate personal foul and I think that will suffice.”
He also waved off Tyrone’s acts as too few to care about: “I think if someone commits one (a personal foul) at the end of the game, that’s the exception rather than the rule. If someone commits one of those during the game they’re walking on thin ice and they’re not in a good place. There are enough deterrents there to stop people doing it. If, on the odd occasion, it does happen that way (late in the game), it is disappointing and it may happen.
“But that’s not going to be the rule — that’s the exception. I don’t think we should change the rules for the exception.”
Sadly, it doesn’t appear to be much of a rarity now.
Over their last two games, Tyrone have resorted to late cynical decisions that, while not exclusive to them, is threatening to define a large chunk of how they play. And there is nobody to blame but themselves.
Cavanagh’s last ditch and desperate foul on Conor McManus came in the 49th minute but it was a crucial moment when a goal would have altered the landscape of the game.
His actions were completely understandable yet wholly condemnable. Any neutral watching would have been aghast at a genuine play by McManus being cut down as he was.
But for questioning Cavanagh as a man which was excessive and uncalled for, Joe Brolly’s combustible remarks on RTÉ were so very accurate.
They have brought a focus onto an issue that is now being truly seen as a blight on the game.
And make no mistake, the real victim here is Gaelic football. Not Cavanagh, whose argument that he is more sinned than sinned against simply doesn’t wash.
Not Monaghan either. In this newspaper last year, Dick Clerkin endorsed cynical play. If they are going to live by the sword, they must die by it too.
And certainly not Tyrone. Scanning Harte’s post-match quotes from Saturday, there was no mention of Cavanagh’s act being disappointing.
Instead, there was indignation, just as there was the week previous when it was pointed out to Harte that his team had committed cynical fouls towards the end of the game. “So what?” came his response.
And we wonder why he didn’t want the black card? Tyrone might argue why hasn’t Eamon McGee’s nasty stamp on Enda Varley received as much attention as a physically harmless foul by Cavanagh.
That might appear strange but then it was a truly exceptional foul by McGee compared to the Tyrone midfielder’s indiscretion, which is a part of bigger and more threatening malaise.
Some of Brolly’s comments were excessive but then so too was the lionising of the player for his act by players and former players on various platforms afterwards.
The “win at all costs” attitude is one reserved to a minority group. It’s the game with a capital G that most are concerned about, not how replicating another sport to stop a goal attempt should be applauded.
Tyrone don’t own the copyright on cynicism; it’s a dark art that has no patent. Declan O’Sullivan and Brian Hurley were guilty of trips over the weekend. Cavan’s Michael Argue pulled down a Kerry player.
But no other team this year has been as obvious as them in committing such play. If they don’t like the attention it’s receiving, then they shouldn’t indulge in it.
The rule book is the problem but those who so excessively exploit its loopholes shouldn’t be praised for doing it. Just like the Cavanagh foul, Tyrone’s resentment about the spotlight being targeted on them is completely understandable yet wholly indefensible.
Harte has proven to be wrong on the yellow card being a suitable punishment for a cynical foul as much as he’s been seen to be inaccurate in his claim that they are a rare phenomena late in games.
“Stop delving into this negativity,” Harte said after Saturday’s victory. You first, Mickey. You first.
Conor Counihan oversaw the second most successful period in the history of Cork football, winning eight pieces of silverware in six seasons.
History should be kind to him but he exits with claims the team underachieved during his reign.
The players, even privately, would likely disagree. Word is there were tears shed in the dressing room and why not after such a long and relatively fruitful journey together.
What Jim McGuinness said of James Horan applies to Counihan too: Here was a manager the squad believed in.
The search for his successor should involve canvassing the opinions from keen observers of the game in the county including the players as much as some of the veterans who are likely to step away now.
We all know what happened at the end of 2007, but have the county board learned that lesson?
For one, with the hurlers proving attractive again, the footballers can’t afford losing its dual players.
Kilkenny have a lot to do with it but it’s not since 2004 that the Leinster hurling champions have lost an All-Ireland semi-final.
Cork beat Wexford on that occasion and they are the opposition for Dublin who have been idle these past five weeks.
The impact of Dublin’s long hiatus is more of a concern given they played five games in as many weeks. Talk about going from feast to famine.
The momentum generated by that high volume of action in such a concentrated time period was massive for Dublin. As Anthony Daly said, but for the replay against Wexford, they mightn’t have been ready for Kilkenny.
With nothing to sharpen their blades since beating Galway, the possibility of rust creeping in is their primary concern as they hope to reach a first All-Ireland final since 1961.
