Gavin O’Mahony: Seanie Tobin sending off very harsh

Limerick centre-back Gavin O’Mahony blasted the sending off of team-mate Seanie Tobin, claiming that players expect contact when a substitute is introduced.

Tobin lasted no more than 20 seconds on the field, receiving a straight red for charging into Clare’s Pat O’Connor on 56 minutes.

“It was very harsh. That goes on in every inter-county game up and down the country,” said O’Mahony.

“There’s nobody hurt, the game goes on. The ball should have been pucked out and away you go. There’s no one injured, there’s no wild stroke. I think players expect that, they like the bit of contact. Fellas are going at it, there’s nothing wild. There’s no one going to get killed. Let the game flow.

“I’m not advocating a fella to be wild or dirty, but a fella is training like that all year off his own steam; to come on and be straight back off, it would want to be very bad.”

Tobin will miss the Tipperary semi-final clash on June 21 and O’Mahony lamented the Murroe-Boher forward’s bad run of luck.

“He’s after a rough couple of months to be fair. His dad died and things just are going against him. He’d an injury or two and that always seems to be the way when things are going against you like that, they kind of accumulate. It’s very disappointing because he’s a good lad with us. He’s been on and off the team.

“When he hasn’t been on it, he’s took it very well and forced his way back onto the team. It’s just very disappointing for him.”

Meanwhile, Cian Lynch’s performance sat in stark contrast to the misfortune which befell Tobin, the Limerick teenager hitting three-points from play in a near-perfect championship debut.

“The first couple of balls came my way, thank God. With Domhnall O’Donovan behind me I knew I wasn’t going to get it easy but thankfully I won one or two of them,” said Lynch.

“It’s what you’re playing for, days like this. You’ll always have the bit of nerves. Without nerves there’s no point playing, but it was good nerves.

“It was very physical. There was no real nasty belts either. If there was belts in the red card incidents there was no seriousness in it. It was just a great game of hurling.” As for his point on 60 minutes, arriving as it did in the wake of Clare’s contest-reviving 1-1.

“I don’t know how vital it was now, but it went over anyway thankfully. Graeme Mulcahy’s goal kind of started us off and Clare reacted with another goal.

“Look, thank God we came out on the right side of it. It could have been the other way around.”