James O’Donoghue: Kerry don’t try to sway refs

James O’Donoghue has rubbished claims that the Kerry footballers attempt to influence referees during games, describing the articles which carried the allegation as "absolutely horrendous".

The 2014 Footballer of the Year believes Kerry’s behaviour towards referees “has been blown out of proportion” and says it is disrespectful to suggest top-level referees are swayed by a handshake and a wink.

O’Donoghue was indirectly responding to Irish Examiner columnist Conor McCarthy who last week

Read More:

Citing Kieran Donaghy and O’Donoghue as examples, McCarthy asserted that Kerry players have an uncanny knack of cajoling officials in order to influence their decision-making.

“If there were ref microphones in football, you would be in hysterics at the dialogue between some of them and the match officials. A hand on the shoulder, a quick joke. Make him think we’re friends kind of thing,” wrote the former Cork footballer.

Manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice was coy on the matter when quizzed in the aftermath of Kerry’s Munster SFC final replay victory over Cork, but his corner-forward wasn’t holding back at yesterday’s launch of the All-Ireland football series at Legion GAA grounds.

“Wasn’t there a big campaign about respect for each other, the referee and the players, and then you shake the referee’s hand and you are influencing his decisions? I think the articles written, some of them were absolutely horrendous,” O’Donoghue insisted.

“You might see something on the field when you are in the stand and you make something out of it in your head which isn’t the case. The referee could want to say to you ‘calm down a bit there’, but then in the stand everyone thinks the player is trying to influence the referee, the referee’s decision. That is not the case at all and I think it has been blown out of proportion.

“The referees probably deserve more respect than that to think a player having a word and a wink is going to influence his decision. That is not true.” Given the majority of football championship fixtures involving Kerry are televised each summer, is it frustrating that the sole examples of alleged influencing of referees being discussed have been pulled from televised games? Who’s to say this practice isn’t rampant throughout the country.

“That is just the nature of the beast. You want all your games on TV. If they want to retrospectively go back and discipline someone then that is fair enough.” When asked if he believed there was a specific reason why Kerry were being singled out, O’Donoghue replied bluntly: “I don’t know.” Over two weeks on from the drawn Munster SFC final, the 25-year old is still not convinced referee Pádraig Hughes made the correct call in awarding him a second-half penalty for a Mark Collins foul.

The Legion forward dusted himself down and dispatched the resulting place-kick to level matters at 2-11 apiece after 53 minutes.

“I know it was a contentious decision. Would I have given a penalty? I am not sure.

“There was a coming together and the referee had a decision to make. It was very 50/50. One team can be lucky and the other unlucky there. Either way it was always going to be a tough call.” He continued: “I went down and was thinking ‘he could give a free here’. It ended up being inside the box. I had probably two minutes between the penalty been given and hitting it. It is a concentration thing, you have to tune in and don’t let anyone get inside your head, don’t let anyone get inside your ear and just make sure that you put the penalty away.

“At that time, we were three-points down. It wasn’t panic stations by any means. I think we would have tipped on a few points if we hadn’t got the penalty. It is a nice boost to get a goal when you are down because it completely flips it. It is a big momentum shifter to get a goal when you are losing.” Said contest finished in stalemate and O’Donoghue was relieved to get a verdict at the end of the second instalment such was the fading light at Fitzgerald Stadium last Saturday evening.

“It was getting a bit grey and the rain was tough in terms of seeing too far in front of you. I don’t think the darkness was too bad, but there certainly wouldn’t have been extra-time played.”