The black card fades to grey

Tongue firmly lodged in cheek, Tipperary’s Robbie Kiely tweeted in the closing stages of Sunday’s All-Ireland final: “Any black cards in this match yet?”

Kiely, of course, experienced that fate just over eight minutes into his team’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo. The frustration of that decision clearly hasn’t left him but what also remains is the fact that in pulling down Jason Doherty the foul warranted he be automatically substituted. One of the biggest grievances with it was similar infractions have not be punished likewise.

The other complaint with Kiely’s removal was the timing of it. RTÉ’s co-commentator Tommy Carr, admittedly Tipperary-born, bemoaned his native county had been waiting 80 years to reach an All-Ireland semi-final and eight minutes in Kiely had gone – “crazy, crazy stuff”.