Reilly’s officiating lacked consistency

Every referee has his own style and interpretation but the first duty in the GAA’s Official Guide is to control the game in accordance with the playing rules.

From the second minute on Saturday, I’m afraid Cormac Reilly didn’t do that.

In one passage of play, Barry Moran and Kevin McLoughlin were fouled without a free being awarded. It was only when McLoughlin was fouled a second time Reilly acknowledged a foul had been committed.

Earlier in the week, I was surprised Reilly was handed the game, as he struggled towards the end of the Mayo-Cork game. We have 16 referees on the Championship panel and yet only six have been seen in August.

Unlike Joe McQuillan yesterday, there was a lack of consistency in applying the rules and players were frustrated.

What happened in the second minute was repeated several times over in the game because in allowing the play to develop, often the team who were fouled received nothing from Reilly. In the fourth minute, Johnny Buckley shouldered Seamus O’Shea in the chest and there was no free. He did the same in the 31st minute on Colm Boyle. When you consider James McCarthy received a yellow card for the same infringement in the first minute yesterday, they were glaring mistakes.

In the 11th minute, Peter Crowley drove his head down into Boyle and yet Kerry were awarded the free. A correct penalty was given to Mayo in the 17th minute but it should have been a black card, and therefore a red, for Shane Enright as he had picked up a yellow earlier in the game. Kerry should have been down to 14 for the remainder but Enright was free to make another foul in the 21st minute on Aidan O’Shea before Kerry wisely replaced him.

Jason Doherty was also fortunate not to be sent to the line after a black card offence on Aidan O’Mahony although one was correctly shown to Fionn Fitzgerald in the 41st minute.

In the 39th minute, Rob Hennelly was correctly blown for picking up the ball outside the rectangle although I couldn’t see where James O’Donoghue was fouled for the 42nd minute penalty. If anything, he might have fouled Boyle.

The second penalty, there was no issue, but Andy Moran could’ve been awarded frees, in the 45th and 53rd minutes especially, when Kerry won three for similar incidents in the 56th minute and the fifth and eighth minutes of first half extra-time.

One particular sequence disappointed me greatly: a 20-second period between 51st and 52 minutes when Aidan O’Shea was pulled, mauled and had his arms held. He couldn’t have passed the ball even if he wanted to. If that’s the type of Gaelic football that’s allowed, then we have a problem.

In the 65th minute, O’Shea elbowed O’Donoghue but Kerry received no free. Reilly did well to allow a fair shoulder hit by O’Shea in the 14th minute of extra-time but then he failed to card Declan O’Sullivan for pulling down Alan Freeman at the end. Cillian O’Connor’s red was deserved.

McQuillan’s performance yesterday was brilliant. By sticking to the rules and operating ticks, yellow and black cards when they were merited, he was more than able to manage the game.

After McCarthy, Neil Gallagher was also booked in the seventh minute after some good teamwork between McQuillan and his sideline official. There was just one error, in the 33rd minute as Leo McLoone was awarded a free in the build-up to Donegal’s first goal. He put his arm around his tackler and looked for the free to be awarded.