Ref Deegan sees ‘killer’ start for black card
The Laois man, who took charge of last September’s All-Ireland final between Donegal and Mayo, agreed cynical play has become a big concern in the game. He said that, for him, the amount of deliberate body colliding or ‘third man tackling’ occurring is particularly frustrating. He also claimed that, until now, a mere yellow card sanction for a player deliberately pulling down an opponent to deny a goalscoring opportunity wasn’t severe enough.
However, he warned fellow officials that they are going to be under fire from all elements of the game, and particularly from inter-county managers, when the new rules are first implemented.
The laws will come into effect on January 1, with teams permitted to replace only the first three players that receive black cards for cynical play.
“The first couple of weeks is going to be a killer, the likes of the O’Byrne Cup, the McGrath Cups, all those competitions,” said Deegan.
“Everybody is going to be watching these new rules and they’re going to be saying ‘that should have been a black card’ or what not.
“Then, the next day, you’re going to have managers giving out, berating the black cards. That’s exactly what’s going to happen.
“By the time the league comes in, it’ll probably have quietened down and it’ll be easier to referee. That’s exactly the way it’s going to be, though — the same thing happened three or four years ago with the sin bin.”
Deegan is happy to suffer the gauntlet of anticipated abuse as he firmly believes the new rules devised by the Football Review Committee are badly needed.
“You go to a match yourself and you can see what is going on,” claimed the Stradbally man. “A fella is running through on goal and he is deliberately — and deliberately is the key word in all of this — being pulled down, and all you do is give him a yellow card.
“That was the sanction up to now but in future you’ll be penalising a player for doing that. He’s gone and someone else is coming in. And if six subs are already used you can’t bring in anyone else to replace him.”
Those who publicly backed the black card at Congress spoke of how cynical the game had become with one speaker even labelling it a ‘cancer’ that needed to be cut out.
Yet Deegan feels labelling modern football as a whole as cynical is a step too far.
“Cynical is a big word to use, I wouldn’t go as far as that,” he said. “But the tactics from some teams are to try and stop the other team from playing.
“You’d be hoping this might free it up a little bit and it would make it easier for the referee to referee the game. You’re certainly hoping the players will go out and play football now.”
Asked what he felt the most cynical aspect of modern football now was, Deegan said it was the body collide.
“Yeah, the body collide,” he replied. “I think the pull down has become a real prevalent one at the minute too. That’s my personal opinion. I think the two of them are coming into the game a lot but I do think with these new rules coming in, well, I’m hopeful, and I’d say everyone is the same, that it will clean up the game.”
Deegan believes inter-county referees have a duty to lead the way and set a strong example for club whistlers.
“All these matches are on TV. If I’m reffing a game on TV and I show a black card, then 99 times out of 100 the club ref will go and do the same thing.”
* Deegan was speaking at the launch of the GAA’s new online Learning and Development Community Portal. The resource will act as a support to coaches, referees, players and administrators.
It can be accessed at www.learning.gaa.ie
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