McEnaney’s warning on ‘simulation’

GAA referees chief Pat McEnaney admits the black card could see an escalation in the number of players feigning fouls.

Simulation, as it stands, is a yellow card offence but it is rarely issued as referees find it difficult to distinguish between what is and isn’t a deliberate attempt to fake a foul.

However, from January 1 it is a black card offence for the player in possession of a ball to drag down the tackler in an attempt to hoodwink a referee into awarding him a free.

McEnaney has warned referees there are likely to be more instances of diving. “We’re very careful. That’s one of the things that we’ve discussed: that players will simulate. Players simulate today, you know, we’ve seen it in our game. It’s not a massive issue but it is done.

“Players buying a free by holding the hand in, you’ve seen some of the [video] clips. But what I say to people is, ‘you pull a fella’s jersey, you’ve taken the decision-making out of your hands as a player’. Maybe the lesson is: don’t pull a fella’s jersey.”

McEnaney also acknowledged players may take advantage of the slight anomaly in the accumulative black card suspension system whereby three black cards across the league and championship carries a one-match ban.

Earlier this week, Laois’ Colm Begley raised the point that players with two black cards by the second last league game may pick up another to miss the last league game and avoid subsequent unavailability in the championship.

“You see it in soccer where they accumulate,” he argued. “I know a fella in Division One of the English League where a couple of boys live beside me at home [Monaghan] — one of the boys used to always accumulate three cards before Christmas so that he’d be suspended for the Christmas period and get home. We can’t eradicate that — yes it’s possible, yeah.”

McEnaney isn’t perturbed by the black card doomsayers forecasting a crisis next month. “If you go back to this time last year, we were looking at the square ball rule. People said there was going to be goalkeepers killed, full-backs assassinated — there was a whole load of reasons given to me about why we should not change the square ball rule.

“A year later, where do we sit on that? It’s been a great rule. The five-second advantage, to me, is a great rule for a club referee. The more experienced referees operating at national level tend to be better referees and better with the slow whistle.”