Finals to get amnesty in FRC’s card compromise
Under the Football Review Committee’s (FRC) adjusted recommendation, from 2014 any inter-county player who picks up three black cards or three double yellows over a season faces a one-match ban.
Under the FRC’s original “yellow and you’re off” proposal, a two-game suspension would have been handed down to a footballer who had been yellow carded on three occasions during a season.
However, the punishment has now been halved to one game while there will be an amnesty for All-Ireland finals.
The idea appears to have come from national referees chairman Pat McEnaney who has long believed a cumulative ban for an All-Ireland final is too harsh.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner last August, he said: “It’s such a big stage that you don’t want a fella missing the next game. You could blow up the amateur status of players but you would create less aggro if you eliminate All-Ireland finals from that idea.”
News of the lenient measure will come as relief to some referees after a couple of high-profile controversial incidents in recent All-Ireland semi-finals.
Five years ago, Cavan referee Brian Crowe elected not to upgrade a yellow card he issued to Noel O’Leary against Meath, which would have ruled the Cork defender out of the final.
In Cork’s 2009 All-Ireland semi-final with Tyrone, Irish Examiner columnist John Bannon followed suit even though he was requested by the Central Competitions Control Committee to review a yellow card he handed John Miskella.
Although against the cumulative ban including All-Ireland finals, McEnaney had been fully supportive of the FRC’s original plans to make certain yellow card offences dismissal infringements.
However, there had been serious doubts raised in Croke Park about the scheme receiving the required two-thirds majority at Congress to be passed into rule from January 1, 2014.
The black card rule, a compromise of sorts, is seen as a more acceptable and understandable version of the FRC’s attempt to curb cynical play in Gaelic football.
The black card is proposed for fouls at the higher end of the current yellow card bracket that are deemed worthy of dismissal and replacement by a substitute.
In the FRC’s amended proposal, a player would receive a black card after committing any one of five cynical and deliberate fouls ranging from pulling down an opponent to body checking a player who has already transferred the ball. The group, chaired by former Offaly All-Ireland winning manager and Gaelic games newspaper columnist Eugene McGee, took the decision to amend their original proposal after feedback from players, managers and other GAA stakeholders. Last weekend, GAA director general Páraic Duffy admitted there was a genuine argument against the severity of the FRC’s initial proposal, which stated a deliberate yellow card offence would merit a dismissal and a replacement.
McGee yesterday confirmed an amendment was being put together after some perceived the recommendation to be “draconian”.
However, he insisted that not all yellow card offences would merit being ordered from the field and this would be clarified in a refined pitch.
The present yellow card system will remain in place with players being sent off without replacement on receipt of a second yellow card.
After a team has picked up three black cards, any player who earns one will not be replaced.
As per the original proposal, the number of substitutions permitted will be increased from the present five to six to reflect the anticipated higher use of the bench due to the black card.
The amendment appears to be a response to the criticism levelled against the original yellow card idea by the likes of Donegal’s Jim McGuinness and Tyrone’s Mickey Harte.
McGuinness described it as a disaster waiting to happen while Harte slammed it as “ridiculous”.
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