Sean Cavanagh says umpires and linesmen need to do more to protect forwards from being intimidated and provoked.

The Tyrone stalwart was sent off 60 minutes into Saturday's one-point All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Mayo, having had his influence on the game negated prior to that by some rather unsavoury up-close-and-personal attention off the ball.

He feels that the extended team of match officials should be doing more to protect players targeted in such a way.

"Sometimes in these big games, in my opinion, linesmen and umpires just don't take those calls as much as they should do," the former Footballer of the Year is quoted in The Irish Times.

"I had brought it to the attention to a few of the linesmen and umpires that any time you were trying to make a run, the run was being checked and you were being pulled and dragged.

"It does become frustrating at times, because I was trying to make the point that 90 per cent of the time it's not the forward who wants to drag a defender. It's the other way around.

"It was difficult then to try and get on the ball and try and get the space to have an impact on the game. That was frustrating.

"But that wasn't just unique for Saturday. It has been happening for a long time in our game, and in my opinion it's probably something that needs to be stamped out of the game."

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