Galway boss Donoghue queries black card penalty call in Leinster final win

The Tribesmen had too much for Dublin at HQ on Saturday evening - despite being reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes in the second half. 

Galway's Conor Whelan with Galway manager Micheál Donoghue. Pic: INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

It didn’t matter in the end but Micheál Donoghue questioned the black card and penalty that were awarded against Galway in Saturday’s Leinster final.

In the 56th minute, Conor Whelan was adjudged to have denied Eoghan O’Donnell a goal scoring chance and was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. Donal Burke found the net with the resultant penalty.

With a host of Galway players standing between O’Donnell and the goal, Donoghue found fault with the decision on first sighting of it.

“I suppose the penalty and the black card is a big penalty to take. I don't know, what were we up? Were we six or seven at the time or maybe a bit more (nine)?

“It's a big decision, do you know what I mean? Obviously, we were 70, 80 yards away, we thought it was outside. It's a big punishment for the crime when maybe where there are bodies back, it's a big call. Thankfully, it hadn't too much of a detrimental effect on us.” 

It was Galway’s second black card in as many games after Joshua Ryan was issued one in the final round win over Wexford last month.

On Saturday, Conor Cooney’s foul on O’Donnell prior to Andrew Dunphy conceding a penalty was not picked up by referee Michael Kennedy. Dunphy was black carded and Aaron Niland struck the penalty to the net.

Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin said: “The lads seemed to be very disappointed with it. Listen, I'm not going to tell referees. Undoubtedly, I'd watch it back and be really disappointed with a few calls, but, overall, that's not going to be my message here. I think the better team won.” 

Donoghue spoke of the difficulty he and U20 manager Gavin Keary faced in juggling the dual commitments of Aaron Niland, Jason Rabbitte and Cullen Killeen as the county reached the U20 All-Ireland final where they lost to Clare.

“Myself and Gavin, it was really difficult the last couple of weeks. We had some of them with knocks and trying to manage them just to get through games.

“You've Cullen Killeen and you've Seán Murphy who picked up a long-term injury. Hopefully Cullen, the month will help him to get back. It's been a really challenging couple of weeks for us as a group.” 

Galway’s All-Ireland semi-final has been scheduled for a 3.30pm throw-in on July 4, which is slightly better than a Saturday evening throw-in. “Just maybe the six o'clock in the evening is hard,” said Donoghue about the difficulty for supporters coming from the west. “I'm sure the ones that are here though are delighted they are.”