Laois boss Eddie Brennan has expressed worry at simulation creeping into hurling following Aaron Dunphy’s red card on Sunday.
Dunphy was given his marching orders by referee Colm Lyons during Laois’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat after a bout of push-and-shove with Padraic Maher ended with him flicking his hurley backwards and striking the Tipperary defender on the leg.
Maher immediately fell to the ground and has been criticised for his reaction.
Brennan believed the red card was harsh and it proved costly as his side lost by 10 points having trailed by just five at the time.
He said: “I think there’s a little simulation creeping into hurling the last couple of years and it’s worrying. At times you go, ok, if a lad’s on a yellow you test him, but at the end of the day you don’t want to see lads walking off the field unless it’s bad.
“The rules are there, and that’s the line you’re going to hear off the officials, but that was a match where there wasn’t a dirty stroke in the whole match and yet there was a ball of yellow cards thrown out.
“When they were consulting they had their backs turned to the pushing and shoving that was going on behind them.
“Go back to the simulation side of it and it’s something I hope doesn’t come into hurling. I’ve seen a few episodes of it and that’s possibly been levelled at Padraic Maher.
"The answer you’re going to get is it’s a strike with a hurl and that’s it.”
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
