Peter Creedon could be facing sideline ban for ref comment

By Daragh Ó Conchúir

Tipperary manager, Peter Creedon could be the first manager to be issued with a sideline ban following his remarks about referee David Coldrick in the wake of Tipperary’s controversial one-point defeat to Armagh in the opening round of the Allianz Football League on Sunday.

Creedon was critical of the Meath official to journalists after the game but was even stronger in his comments when speaking to Tipp FM, declaring that he was “not fit for inter-county refereeing”.

The Cork native accused Coldrick of costing his side the victory by awarding a dubious penalty and sending off Robbie Kiely harshly, while he also said that the referee ignored his linesman’s advice that time was up before Armagh snatched the winning point.

Clearly aware that he might attract the attention of the disciplinary bosses, Creedon acknowledged that managers had been warned about their post-game comments on referees, but said too much was being put in by teams to say nothing.

“I’m angry on behalf of the team because the referee did us out of the match” declared Creedon.

“I thought David Coldrick had a howler. The linesman even at the last minute there said the two minutes (of injury time) were up and he told the ref to blow it up (but) he left the play go on for their (winning) point.

“Robbie Kiely’s sending off. Robbie says your man was holding him, he just shoved his hand off. Their midfielder drew blood on Barry Grogan in the first half, nothing done.

“Very dubious penalty. Tipp were the best team but we didn’t win.”

When asked if he expected better from a Division 1 referee, Creedon responded scathingly.

“Ah yeah, but he’s not a Division 1 ref. He’s not fit for inter-county refereeing. Not on that performance anyway because if he’s reffing in places like Armagh with a partisan crowd he has to be brave enough and bold enough to make the right calls and he made an awful lot of dubious ones.

“I know we’re not supposed to be giving out about referees but we’re putting too much effort into this to be robbed by the ref there at the end. Time was up, he should have blown up. A point each would maybe even have been unjust on us as I thought we were the better team.”

The GAA announced last November that they were introducing sideline bans for officials making derogatory comments about referees, when match suspensions had previously been the only option available to them.

This decision came in the wake of an investigation into Cody’s description of Barry Kelly’s last-minute award of a free to Tipperary in the drawn All-Ireland hurling final as “criminal”.

The Kilkenny manager escaped with a warning after the GAA’s central hearings committee deemed that his comments had not discredited the association.