O’Rourke slams ‘bear hugging’ Dubs
A player has to “deliberately pull down an opponent” to the ground to be awarded a black card under Gaelic football’s new rules. But O’Rourke says Dublin are wrapping a player up with a bear-hug style challenge that keeps both players on their feet as a way around the sanction.
“To be honest, the most annoying part of the game regarding the official was that Paddy Keenan was being cynically fouled every time he got possession,” said O’Rourke.
“But he wasn’t brought to the ground, therefore it wasn’t a black card. That completely defeats thepurpose of addressing cynical fouling. That is the most cynical foul that there is, a good player winning the ball, trying to break out of the middle third and he’s bear hugged. Okay, it’s a free but then nothing happens so what’s the point of trying to address cynical play?
“If you’re strong enough to bear hug a player and not let him get to the ground then you don’t get a black card and that is being coached at the minute, I know well that it is.
“The black card is well intentioned and the origins of it are probably well intentioned but the solution they’ve come up with is not a solution, if you ask me.”
All-Ireland winning Armagh defender O’Rourke described the new sanction as a “shambles” and said a lack of refereeing consistency has left players in limbo.
“I’d love to get to the situation where we can just ignore the officials and let them do what they’re going to do but it’s so up and down and sodifferent every week that at the minute we can’t do that. Everybody is really waiting to take their lead from officials when it gets consistent but it’s not there at the minute.”
