Ref’s red call on Collins correct

Looking at the World Cup quarter-finals in the last few days, it would be fair to say Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo and his colleagues made more mistakes than the GAA match officials this past weekend.

There have been calls of late for referees to be made professional in inter-county Gaelic games. I’ve always maintained paying referees won’t make the accuracy of decisions any better.

What’s required is money, yes, but inject it into better training of referees.

The big decision of the weekend was possibly Podge Collins’ sending off for interference with a helmet in Ennis on Saturday night.

Cathal McAllister was right in dismissing him as it is an addition to the rulebook, rule 5.19, since last year to do such a thing is a red card offence.

McAllister was sharp in the game, blowing up Conor Ryan for throwing a ball — but just how many go unacknowledged during hurling matches? In the other qualifier game on Saturday in Thurles, Colm Lyons was not as impressive as his previous outing in the championship, the Leinster semi-final between Wexford and Dublin last month.

There appears to be a lot of confusion about how to deal with seriously injured players. In the 25th minute, it was clear Pádraig Brehony picked up a major injury yet play was allowed to continue and Tipperary scored a point.

When a player has a problem play needs to stop quickly. Brehony was subsequently substituted. These mixed messages from referees have to end because some are rightly stopping play and then some aren’t.

In the Leinster final yesterday, Barry Kelly was right to give a seventh minute penalty to Dublin. I disagree entirely with Michael Duignan’s assessment that Kelly’s decision to give a free against TJ Reid for a foul on Alan Nolan for charging late in the game was outrageous.

In Cork John Hayes was correctly sent off by Cormac Reilly for a high elbow. There were a couple of technical fouls that went unnoticed like Fionn Fitzgerald double hopping the ball and Stephen O’Brien throwing a ball.

Even as a Longford man, I can say Padraig O’Sullivan had no hand or part in our desperate defeat to Tipperary on Saturday. If anything he was a little lenient in not giving yellow cards to Paul Barden in the 37th minute and then George Hannigan in the 59th.