Conor Neville: Let’s not dive overboard in the war on sledging
Daithí Regan broadcast the contents of a conversation between himself and Brian Gavin in which the referee alleged that everyone had misunderstood the reason he had booked Joe Canning in the Tullamore replay against Dublin.
It was naturally assumed that Canning had been yellow-carded following a wrestling match on the ground with Dublin goalkeeper Alan Nolan.
It was thought that Gavin was merely following long-standing refereeing precedent in ignoring the instigation of the row and simply showing yellow cards to the players found grappling on the ground.
However, Daithí dropped the bombshell that Canning had in fact been booked for ‘sledging’.
Sledging is most often associated with the sport of cricket, a sport which GAA purists will remind you, leaves a great deal of room for standing around thinking up funny things.
Classics of the genre include Rodney Marsh’s (Australian wicket keeper, not the ’70s footballer) exchange with Ian Botham. The former implied that he had sexual relations with the latter’s wife. This, you may not be surprised to learn, is a reliable and well-worn theme which lies behind many a sporting sledge. But it is Botham’s response that has become legendary.
“How’s your wife and my kids?”
“The wife is fine, the kids are retarded.”
It is doubtful whether Canning’s utterance to Conal Keaney will win a place in the compendium of great sledges.
This writer doesn’t even have the basic qualifications in the field of lip reading, but it appears, from careful study of the tape (well, YouTube video) that Canning appeared to shout ‘YEEESSSS!’ in Keaney’s face after scoring.
It is not unknown for players to shout this after scoring a goal.
Referees are usually inclined to tolerate it.
The difference here is apparently that Canning shouted it in close proximity to Keaney’s face.
Sledging, though? In commentary, Liam Sheedy described it as Canning just letting “a little yep out of him”. It didn’t even occur to him that it might be cause for a yellow card.
In the current panic around sledging, let’s not overdo things.
Either way, Joe Canning, perhaps wisely, chose not to celebrate any scores against Laois by shouting in an opponent’s face, though he was given ample opportunity.
Incidentally Regan said he didn’t expect diving, an apparent recent craze which fellow pundit Eoin Kelly had been lamenting, to be a feature of the Wexford-Kilkenny game because these two counties “had a tradition of men”.
Regan has yet to shame any county by directly instancing a team who are historically deficient in this department.
Tommy Carr sparked a bit of a ruckus in Pearse Park last night.
The Carlow footballers had proven unable to compete meaningfully with Longford, going down by ten points.
This was the same Longford who weren’t quite good enough to get within 26 points of Dublin.
Carlow football would have to experience quite a renaissance before even moral victories were in reach.
It is also the seventh year in a row that Longford have won their Round 1 qualifier, one of those curious stats that manages to be both a tribute and an indictment.
Carr was down in Pearse Park alongside Brian Carty. If he enjoyed the assignment, then he kept that enjoyment far from public view.
In his post-match lament (there’s no other word for it), he began by expressing sympathy for the Carlow players, the kind of sympathy that is usually reserved for someone who didn’t get what they wanted in the Leaving Cert.
He was effusive in his praise of Longford, pointing out that they had proven conclusively they weren’t as bad as Carlow. Surely everything after that is bonus territory?
Contentiously, he alleged a lack of effort on the part of players in the weaker counties.
This, Joanne Cantwell was keen to inform us, sparked a volley of outraged texts from all over the country.
However, most of the texters missed Carr’s point.
He was not suggesting that these boys are poorly endowed in the moral fibre department. For Carr, any lack of effort was an entirely understandable consequence of their team’s status.
In this column’s view, the amazing thing is not that there are lads who aren’t willing to put in the effort to play for the Carlow footballers.
The amazing thing is that they can still find at least 15 lads who are.
With a couple of high-profile exceptions, hyperbole has not typically been a vice of RTÉ Radio’s army of GAA pundits.
They have long been tamer and more cognisant of their target’s feelings than their soccer counterparts.
However, in the aftermath of Roscommon’s mildly surprising defeat in Sligo, Shane Curran didn’t hold back in his assessment of John Evans’ oft-praised tenure as Roscommon manager.
Curran employed the word ‘abysmal’ when describing Roscommon’s championship record under Evans.
It is a rough verdict.
Is it fair?
Despite Evans’ excitable claim that Roscommon could be All-Ireland contenders within a few years — the Connacht championship remains the primary and most realisable aim for Roscommon football followers.
Evans has yet to achieve a substantial victory in Connacht in three years of trying.
However, two of their defeats came against Mayo, and the latter of these was a one-point loss.
Last year’s qualifiers saw a crushing defeat of Cavan and a disappointing but respectable defeat to Armagh.
And they hardly disgraced themselves in a two point loss to Tyrone in 2013.
Saturday evening’s result was a knock-back but it might be prudent to wait awhile before attaching adjectives like ‘abysmal’ to Evans’ Roscommon reign.
The absurdly lopsided nature of the championship has been well-flagged at this stage. There is no need to write any more pained articles attesting to it.
The weekend brought another stunning example of this with the observation that Laois had played four championship matches and been knocked out before Sligo had even played a match.
Defeat to Antrim will surely mean the end of Tomás Ó Flatharta’s uninspiring reign as Laois manager.
Laois was Ó Flatharta’s third inter-county assignment and perhaps his most disappointing yet.
Westmeath enjoyed the odd good result under him and were usually impressive in the league but things ended badly in 2009.
While he could claim that his time in charge of Galway ended too abruptly, he has had two years at Laois and the team has under-achieved. They will surely be looking for a new manager come late summer.
Wifi not working again at the Gaelic Grounds for press. No password required so most of the 31,388 in attendance are on it. #GAA
Rule number one for future accumulators, never ever trust @CLGLaois footballers. Horror year for them & O’Flatharta/players not good enough!
Very poignant and beautifully observed there by #tippvlim fans. @officialgaa always respectful. #Berkeley
Galway, Kilkenny and Tipperary won their Championship games this weekend by a combined 60 points. And all talk was of an open Championship..
A weekend of one sided hurling championship games...I assume this means we’ll have calls for restructuring now! #GAA
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