Brian Whelahan believes that referees already had the tools to deal with cynical fouling before the controversial sin bin/penalty rule was introduced.
Tipperary’s win over Clare in Sunday’s Munster semi-final was marred by the baffling decision of referee James Owens to invoke the rule for a challenge by Aidan McCarthy on Jake Morris, despite the incident occurring near the sideline with a goal far from inevitable.
Tipperary scored the resultant penalty and, with McCarthy spending 10 minutes off the field, added a further 1-4 to Clare’s 0-2 to effectively put the game to bed, leaving Banner boss Brian Lohan furious afterwards.
Whelahan, one of the game’s all-time great defenders, feels that, as in soccer, referees should have been given the power to brandish a red card for professional fouls rather than rolling out the sin bin/penalty, which is on trial in both codes for the 2021 senior inter-county season.
He said: “People will say you could only give him a booking but I just think that that needs to be expanded in the sense that if you’re going through in on goal, you look like you’re scoring a goal and I drag you down, the referee, if he feels that it was deliberate and it prevented a goalscoring opportunity, should say, ‘Right, you’re gone to the line’ and I think that would have cut it out very easily and without much fuss.
“To turn around and say that a guy, just inside the 21, on the sideline poses a goal threat is absolutely ludicrous.
“You could see from the video or from the replay or even in normal play that he was going to be intercepted and maybe put the ball over the bar.
“They certainly need to take another look at things because it’s a disgrace and I felt for Brian Lohan, I did, because it came at a crucial time of the game and to give credit to Tipp as well, they are the best stick men in the country and if they get an opportunity to hurt you with an extra man there is no more clinical team than Tipperary.
“With time on the ball, they are the best stickmen in the country and they showed it again - 2-4 in that 10-minute period will kill off any team.
“I don’t want to be overly hard on James Owens but if he had the chance of hindsight might have said maybe a goal opportunity wasn’t on and that course of action didn’t need to be taken. Obviously a free and a booking but that was about it.”
The former Offaly star admits that cynicism is far more prevalent in the game now than it was during his playing days.
“I hate comparing eras but it was never even heard tell of to turn around and say, ‘If such a fella is through on goal and you’re near enough, pull him down’. That would never even have been discussed. Now, we know it is.
“It is being talked about in dressing rooms, in training sessions, ‘Take a yellow card’. And, to be honest, it had crept into it and I know they were maybe trying to do the right thing in addressing that but the rules were there - work with the tools you have.”
