NO DISCIPLINARY ACTION will be taken against Kerry “star” Kieran Donaghy, despite video evidence suggesting that he was lucky not to be sent off during the Kingdom’s three-point Munster SFC Final victory over Cork yesterday.
The Austin Stacks man clashed with Rebel wing-back Noel O’Leary four minutes into the second half in Killarney, apparently raking his studs down the defender’s left thigh following a tangle between the two.
Although match referee David Coldrick seemed to have a perfect view of the incident, he consulted with linesman Cormac Reilly before deciding to award a yellow card.
Under the current rules, no retrospective action can be taken by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) once the referee is deemed to have dealt with the offence. As a result, Donaghy – who scored 0-2 in yesterday’s win – will be free to line out in the All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Finals over the August bank holiday weekend.
But what do you think? Was Donaghy lucky to escape a sending-off? Or did David Coldrick get the decision right?
Once the card was given O Leary jumped to his feet with obviously no injury. Is faining an injury in order to get a player sent off a bookable offence ?
I’ve never seen such a miraculous recovery in my life – there must have been holy water in that bottle! Ronaldo would have been proud of that display of amateur dramatics!
That said, Donaghy was out of line.You could argue he was lucky to escape a red but Noel O’Leary was no saint either…
Stamping offence = Red Card.
Mary pulled me cardigan so do i get to stamp on Marys leg?
there was no stamp, a slight kick, and o’leary deserved it.
It was still studs into the leg, therefore an act of aggressive play thus meriting more than a yellow. What was more serious was Gooch Cooper’s attempted strangulation of Denis O’Sullivan on the ground later in the match. While I am a Cork fan this should not detract from the severity of these two incidents. If the Examiner camerman can get a shot of Cooper then surely RTE must have some footage somewhere from the cameras at the ground. It is high time a zero tolerance policy regarding off the ball intimidation was brought in. As someone who has attended many Cork v Kerry games in the past (didn’t get to Killarney due to heatstroke suffered on Friday at the U14 Feile) this one was quite clean in terms of off the ball shenanigans. Even so foul play is foul play regardless of who is involved. It is a pity this has detracted from an intriguing game (even if Cork were pathetic in the 1st half) which was played with an intensity that has been unmatched this year so far.
ha yer gas in cork.. strangulation attempt?? he held his jersey at his chest level.. not attempt to strangle at all. suppose ye have forgotten kavanagh’s real strangulation of gooch in the munster championship.. didnt see anybody in cork getting worked up over the cccc’s decision to overlook that incident.
retaliation in any sport is a shame to watch but in this case the cork player gave Donaghy no choice he refused to disengage from the jersey pulling stopping Kieron from getting back into the play, something like that alone should be a sending off offence the ref and linesman took all this into account and treated the incident for what it was, Donaghy being targeted in the hope of getting him sent off, its a tactic see way too often used by losing sides, if they tried that in real life they would fully expect to be decked with no action taken against them as it would be self defence, and get it right, Keiron used his leg to push the player away from him, it wasnt a stamping
Not condoning Donaghy at all, he put the studs in, but this is Noel O’Leary we’re talking about. He specialises in ‘frustrating’ his opponent by any means necessary.
The ref probably got it right. If all a player needed to do to get sent off was to drag out off his opponent after the ball had gone and then react like he’d been shot then games would end with about 21 players left on the pitch. O’Leary should have seen yellow too.
This is not ‘stamping’. Its kicking out at a player who was fouling you off the ball. O’Leary was not badly hurt and made an absolute meal of it. O’Leary likes to play the hard man act. He didn’t look that hard here.
Just a pity Paul Galvin wasn’t there, eh?
Red card offence every day of the week according to the rules. There is no defence.
That should read “If all a player needed to do to get another player sent off…”
Red card, no doubt. O Leary is far from an angel and would still be stuck into Donaghy if he could, but he retaliated soccer style and that should have been enough to see red. I have watched Kerry admiringly for the past nearly 40 years and it is only in the past few years that disciplinary questions have really raised their heads in the kingdom, to their serious detriment. Galvin and the O’Sheas resort to tactics that neither they nor their predecessors never needed to. I have no problem with physicality but dirt was rarely in Kerry’s footballing repertoire. Kerry losing Donaghy at that stage would most certainly have cost them the game. If I was O Connor it would be a major issue for me. By the by I’m not a Kerry man but Gooch is not a dirty player and this ‘strangling’ incident was nothing if looked at closer. Both players should have seen yellow. What concerns me is the amateurish officiating in the game today. It is pathetic and it is the officials who are falling behind.