Philly McMahon questions merit of black card

Such is the growing dislike for the black card in football that players are now questioning why they commit to the game in the first place – says straight-talking Philly McMahon.

The Dublin defender also suggests that whatever initial feeling of reluctant acceptance came with the introduction of the black card – aimed at eradicating cynical foul play – it has fast turned to anger.

Fellow defender Jonny Cooper was black-carded just 21 minutes into Saturday evening's All-Ireland replay win over Mayo, and was followed into the stands not long afterwards by Mayo's Lee Keegan (in added time of the first half), and goalkeeper Robert Hennelly (five minutes into the second half).

“Look at Jonny, playing in an All-Ireland final, playing brilliantly, and he gets a black card early on,” says McMahon. “And that’s his final over, after preparing all year, and playing brilliant all year. I wouldn’t be happy with that anyway. It needs to be reviewed, definitely.

“I know in my first All-Ireland final in 2011 I was over the moon we won the game, but disappointed not to play the whole duration. I’m sure Jonny is the same. But the type of player he is, he’ll get over it.”

Innocuous foul

McMahon was himself black-carded when Dublin travelled to Castlebar to play Mayo earlier in the season, and understands the frustration that comes with being sent to the stands early in a game, for what may have been an innocuous foul. With that, he says, players begin questioning their commitment to the game.

“From a player’s point of view, we do all the pre-season in the cold weather, put so much time into it, work on top of that, then travel up and down the country, four or five hours, and your family travels to see you play, and you last three minutes on the pitch, sitting in the stand, thinking ‘what is this all about?’

“I’m trying to represent the sport, this association, what’s in it for me if I’m sitting in the stand after three minutes? After maybe a mistake, or an accidental collision, or whatever it is. It’s so broad, and it’s not consistent.

“And I think it’s very tough on referees, to be honest. In fairness, they’ve done well, but it’s something I feel for the players, especially on All-Ireland final day.”

Any change to the black card rule will have to go back to Congress, where it gained the necessary 71 per cent approval when put before the 2013 Congress in Derry, and with that was first introduced during 2014 championship.

In the meantime McMahon admits that while Saturday’s back-to-back All-Ireland victory is fast sinking in (“as one of the lads who doesn’t drink it’s sunk in that bit quicker; for some of the rest the only thing that has sunk in so far is alcohol”) he also suggests the Mayo players don’t need or wouldn’t want any sympathy – despite yet another tale of so near and yet so far.

“Well, if that was me, I wouldn’t be looking for sympathy, although it’s something you feel for, yeah. But at the end of the day, it’s just sport. When we visit the Children’s Hospital after games like this is really grounds us, brings us down to earth.

“For Mayo, Cillian O’Connor scored the equaliser the first day, and if he’d done it on Saturday, he would have been a hero. That’s sport.”

There is something special through about this winning All-Ireland, says McMahon, pointing to the links with the 1916 Centenary celebrations, for a start: “For sure, all that surrounded it, such as the 1916 celebrations, this year. There’s not many people, apart from these Dublin players, who can say have 1916 on the back of their All-Ireland medal. When’s the next one? We won’t be playing then. My father is from Belfast so there’s a big of a connection there, but it’s just about having that 1916 on the medal.

“And then those two battles we had with Mayo. It was so close. I’m sure every other county in the country wanted to see a new county winning the All-Ireland. We had all that against us, and showed great character . . .

Management team

“We came back here to the Gibson Hotel after the drawn game, and none of us wanted to be here. We just wanted to go home and recover and prepare the body for the next day.

“And the management team were immense over the last two weeks. We really noticed they upped their game, so we had to up our game for them. They try to support us in every way, and that creates the environment we’re in, and the talk that goes on around that environment, and that helped us massively.

“And the back-to-back thing is different, now that you’ve done it. It’s not something you speak about before. It’s something we’ve been trying to do, but now that we’ve won it, it’s an amazing feeling.”