Meath's Matthew Costello: New rules make red cards even more costly

Despite Meath being knocked out by Mayo, Costello said it still was a "positive year" for his team

Meath had Ronan Jones sent off in the 52 minute of their All-Ireland SFC Round 3 game against Mayo. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Meath's Mathew Costello reckons that receiving a red card is even more punitive than it used to be due to the new rules.

The Royals, All-Ireland semi-finalists in 2025, crashed out of the Sam Maguire Cup race last weekend after losing to Mayo, their third loss in four Championship outings.

Meath were reduced to 14 players in the 52nd minute following the controversial dismissal of substitute Ronan Jones.

The scores were tied at that stage and Mayo went on to win by three, completing a 13-point swing on the scoreboard having trailed by 10 at one stage in the first half.

Costello acknowledged that Meath lost to Cork in Round 1 of the All-Ireland SFC despite having an extra man following Colm O'Callaghan's red card.

But he agreed that, in general, losing a player to a red card is even more 'penal' now as teams still have to observe the three-up direction and so are faced with a 10 v 11 scenario when defending.

Donegal exploited that advantage against Kerry last month, dominating the second half with an extra man and leading Eamonn Fitzmaurice, one of the Football Review Committee's rule designers, to query in his Irish Examiner column whether a red card is now too severe.

"For that reason alone it does make it a little bit more difficult," said Costello, referencing the 10 v 11 issue. "But, you know, unfortunately if a team does get a red card, there probably should be a slight disadvantage there. But I don't know the exact answer to that or what way to fix it. I do think it probably is a bit more penal, especially now that when you do get the ball you probably only really feel like you have half the pitch to work with when you're trying to hold onto it and stuff.

"Whereas under the old rules it did feel like maybe you could have more control in your own half with the ball. The way teams can just press up now, it's quite difficult to regain those kick-outs that you used to be able to get away easily enough, or certainly easier inside the arc. So it's probably more penal, yeah, but I wouldn't know the best way of fixing it."

Like the Cork game, Meath coughed up a significant lead against Mayo and they also lost to Westmeath in the Leinster championship.

Costello maintained that it was still a positive season overall, with promotion to Division 1 of the National League and the Division 2 title secured.

"A massive goal of this group was to get back to Division 1 and hopefully when we're there next year we can give ourselves a good push to stay there," said the Dunshaughlin man, who was speaking at the announcement that PwC has extended its title sponsorship of the PwC All-Stars and PwC Camogie All-Stars.

"More recently, we were obviously quite disappointed with a couple of results in the Championship. The way the game is now, a lot of it seems to be on the day and we just came out at the wrong end of it.

"I think long-term for Meath football, being in Division 1 is a brilliant thing. It feels so long ago now we had that great day at Croke Park in the National League final against Cork but I think, broadly speaking, it's been a positive year."