{"id":281277,"date":"2026-01-12T19:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/281277\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T19:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:24:18","slug":"the-gaa-community-has-no-stomach-for-strict-enforcement-of-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/281277\/","title":{"rendered":"The GAA community has no stomach for strict enforcement of rules \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The outcry after the All-Ireland club semi-final was instant and, on a human level, perfectly understandable. Cullen Killeen, Loughrea\u2019s 19-year-old centrefielder, was sent off on a straight red card in stoppage time with the Galway<\/a> champions 13 points clear and coasting. <\/p>\n

The off-the-ball incident wasn\u2019t picked up by TG4\u2019s cameras but the linesman saw it. When the referee Johnny Murphy issued the red card, he made a swinging motion with his arms as if to indicate that the offence had been striking with the hurley. In his report later, Murphy cited Killeen for \u201cstriking with minimal force\u201d.<\/p>\n

The only thing that everyone could agree upon was the senselessness of what had happened, though that was a multi-headed beast. People shook their heads at what Killeen was alleged to have done, but they shook their heads for longer at what Murphy did. <\/p>\n

In the GAA<\/a>, and in all team sports, that is the eternal conflict: in a sending off, the referee is often the co-accused. In these cases, there is a perverse kind of justice: in the court of public opinion, the ref has no right to appeal; on top of that, the presumption of innocence is denied. <\/p>\n

The young player, who had been named TG4\u2019s man of the match, was visibly distressed and you can imagine the feelings of everyone around him. His brother, Tiernan, is the star of their forward line, his mother, Lillian, is the chair of Loughrea. One of the greatest days in the history of the club was soured by a moment of rashness followed by an unusually fearless application of the rules. All of it was concussive.<\/p>\n

\"RefereeReferee Johnny Murphy shows a red card to Loughrea\u2019s Cullen Killeen against Slaughtneil. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Everyone of us has done something foolish in the heat of the moment. A lot of the time, there are no consequences. On some level, the general sympathy for Killeen\u2019s circumstances stems from that common experience. You do something mad and you get away with an apology or a show of remorse. The suffering ends there. <\/p>\n

Those options weren\u2019t open to Killeen. His only chance for a reprieve was to demonstrate that the ref had made a mistake. The disciplinary bodies hearing his case have no access to clemency.<\/p>\n

The response to what happened to Killeen, though, was another example of our mixed-up attitudes to discipline. The spotlight shifted immediately from the player to the ref. Murphy was expected to turn a blind eye to what he understood to be a sending off offence because it was the last minute, the game was over as a contest and the consequences for the player were dire. <\/p>\n

Like water, referees will sometimes take the path of least resistance, and, in that case, many refs who would have just issued a yellow card. Nobody would have condemned Murphy for a display of mercy just as nobody really applauded him for a scrupulous application of the rules. <\/p>\n

As a GAA community we have very little stomach for that kind of enforcement. Murphy was also the ref who sent off Darragh McCarthy for striking in the first minute of Tipperary\u2019s round-robin game against Cork last April. In a situation such as that, the ref is routinely blamed for \u201cdestroying\u201d the game. In this case, Murphy was also condemned for sanctioning a player for the kind of flaking that has characterised the early minutes of championship matches for generations. <\/p>\n

\"Cork’sCork\u2019s Se\u00e1n O’Donoghue goes down after an incident that led to Tipperary’s Darragh McCarthy being sent off last April. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Did that mean the ref was wrong? The usual refrain is that the ref should have used his or her \u201ccommon sense\u201d. But what does that mean? If the rules cannot apply in the first minute or the last minute, what is a good time for the rules to kick in? What is the difference between a red card infringement in the first minute or the 41st minute? <\/p>\n

One is more palatable only because of how referees were conditioned to behave for many years and because of how we were conditioned to respond. A kind of unspoken amnesty was applied to the early exchanges of any match and the last knockings of a dead match. Players expected that a yellow card and a finger-wagging would be the limit of their liability. This would have satisfied the \u201ccommon sense\u201d brigade too. <\/p>\n

Over the years, players have successfully escaped the consequences of their actions and lined up in All-Ireland finals, although it is much harder to do so now. In 2009 the Cork footballer John Miskella was yellow carded for a red card offence in the All-Ireland semi-final but still lined out in the final. <\/p>\n

In those days, the referee\u2019s original decision could not be overturned unless he admitted to a mistake. The Central Competitions Control Committee invited John Bannon to review footage of the incident involving Miskella but he didn\u2019t deviate from his original decision. <\/p>\n

Ironically, in that All-Ireland final the Kerry centrefielder Tadhg Kennelly should have been red carded at the throw-in but he was apparently spared by the unwritten amnesty on early skirmishes.<\/p>\n

\"TadhgTadhg Kennelly seemed to benefit from getting his offence in early in the 2009 All-Ireland final. Photograph: Donall Farmer\/Inpho <\/p>\n

In 2017 Conor Gleeson missed the All-Ireland for Waterford after a red card against Cork in the semi-final, but in the same match Austin Gleeson should also have been sent off on a straight red for yanking the helmet off a Cork player\u2019s head. When asked to reflect on his in-game decision, however, the referee James Owens didn\u2019t change his mind. <\/p>\n

Everybody could plainly see what had happened and knew what the consequences for Gleeson should have been. And yet there would have been a huge constituency of followers pleased that the All-Ireland wouldn\u2019t be denied Gleeson\u2019s brilliant presence, whatever he had done or whatever the rules said. <\/p>\n

Immediately after Loughrea\u2019s semi-final, the same feelings applied to Killeen. Everybody wondered immediately if there would be a way out. If video evidence would exonerate him. Slaughtneil indicated that they would help in any way they could. Compassion for his circumstances was instant and widespread. <\/p>\n

But the disciplinary system makes no allowance for that. Loughrea had to show that the ref had made a mistake. The Central Hearings Committee confirmed a one-match suspension last week. Before Sunday\u2019s final the Central Appeals Committee will be next on Loughrea\u2019s radar and potentially the Disputes Resolution Authority after that.<\/p>\n

But people would have reached a firm verdict on Murphy\u2019s decision as soon as he made it. Whatever we say about respect for the rules, as a GAA community we have no stomach for that kind of enforcement. That\u2019s on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outcry after the All-Ireland club semi-final was instant and, on a human level, perfectly understandable. Cullen Killeen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[55538,10416,24,18,131567,25429,16750,19,17,132,4935],"class_list":{"0":"post-281277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-galway-gaa","9":"tag-kerry-gaa","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-football-championship","13":"tag-gaa-club-hurling-championship","14":"tag-hurling-championship","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tipperary-gaa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115883767569975912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}