Tyrone plan to appeal Conor McKenna red card

Feargal Logan: "There are some times on a football field when a player isn’t contributing to a melee, and he’s simply looking to the safety of his own team-mate, or to the safety of others"

OFF: Referee Joe McQuillan shows Tyrone's Conor McKenna a red card

TYRONE manager Feargal Logan has insisted his county will be seeking a hearing for the straight red card awarded to Conor McKenna in the closing stages of their 2-17 to 2-10 win over Fermanagh in the Ulster preliminary round.

“It’s fair to say I have been deeply involved in GAA disciplinary processes for a long number of years now, and from virtually every angle of it.

“Let me say it’s causing a lot of difficulty, this position in terms of contributing to a melee,” Logan began.

“I know Armagh are in pursuit of it at the moment.

“Joe McQuillan had a very difficult job out there, and did very well, but ultimately there are some times on a football field when a player isn’t contributing to a melee, and he’s simply looking to the safety of his own team-mate, or to the safety of others.

“And on this occasion, we firmly believe that Conor was looking to the safety of one of his team-mates, and that’s simply why he moved towards the matters.

“I’m going to leave it for everybody else to watch the video and work it out for themselves, but at some stage there must be justification on a football field to begin to assist and see to the safety of others.” 

He continued, “Sometimes lines are crossed on football fields by players, and they regret them, and sometimes it’s not appropriate. But there are times when lines are crossed and people have to take action in the vicinity, and that’s where it’s at.” 

Asked if he spoke to referee Joe McQuillan to get his view of the incident, he replied, “I wouldn’t enter into any of that.

“We deeply respect the players and officials, we deeply respect Joe McQuillan, who has refereed and has a lot of experience, but it’s well night impossible to expect humans to spot all that’s going on when there are a number of people in together.

“We had an earlier position in terms of contributing to a melee. There are a lot of things about that disciplinary process which I could talk about, but I’d rather focus on tonight.”