Great match, great football...........great referee decisions?...........I'm not so sure.

What are your thoughts on this:)........no trolling, just honest opinions:)

Cranky360 (Mayo) - Posts: 834 - 30/08/2014 19:43:09    1644741

I'll preface this by saying that it was a near impossible game to ref - equally for the ferocious pace to the game as the cynical nature of it.

I would say that the 2 points that Kerry got in first half of extra time were from incredibly soft frees. The first was for nothing and the second was a clear dive by the Kerry player.

benjyyy (Donegal) - Posts: 1422 - 30/08/2014 20:01:51    1644774

Yes Mayo had some calls go against them and Kerry tactics near the end were no surprise as they have done that forever.
Mind you Mayo had their chance to seal the deal the last day and couldn't get the job done again.

SLLY (Dublin) - Posts: 463 - 30/08/2014 20:04:09    1644781

Agree with Benjjy.

It was a very difficult game for the referee. Obviously referees get reviewed after every game. The public never get to see them unfortunately.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 30/08/2014 20:06:26    1644784

Children and idiots blame referees.

Mayo weren't good enough. Simple as. I thought they would be to be honest but they weren't good enough.

Kerry got soft decisions and Mayo got soft decisions. Deal with it.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 30/08/2014 20:07:12    1644787

aidan o shea was fouled continously again today.the two kerry penos were debatable and the two points in the first half of extra time were incredibly soft.to see the ref dishing out yellow cards at the end as if they made any difference was embarrasing.as usual year after year refs are the focal point of most games.i suppose really its the ambiguity of the rules?also why didnt shane enright get sent off for the mayo peno?the rules state he should have? having said ll that credit to both sets of players on a fabulous two games.

kavvie (Clare) - Posts: 505 - 30/08/2014 20:12:28    1644792

We know all about Cormac Reilly's refereeing in Cavan.
Not surprised by his performance at all.

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 30/08/2014 20:20:07    1644810

We have been done in the past with poor decisions, and by the CCCC when others haven't.
Not many reds rescinded in Kerry.

Why the constant need to find controversy, that was a stunning game. End of.

westkerry (Kerry) - Posts: 1250 - 30/08/2014 20:24:45    1644814

I thought ref was afwul. Gave kerry two frees in second half of normal time for nothing. And two in extra time. Mayo were not allowed to touch donaghy.
Normally they even even out but didn't see him give any easy frees to mayo in scoreable positions.
Sent oconnor off for triping a kerry man trying to waste time and threw up ball. Yet no kerry man sent off for wasting time.
So much for black card.

tom84 (Cavan) - Posts: 334 - 30/08/2014 20:28:10    1644818

Do agree that Kerry got some soft frees today, however, after the sending off last Sunday, I thought Mayo were getting all the handy frees in second half.

Drummerboy (Dublin) - Posts: 85 - 30/08/2014 20:30:10    1644820

first penalty decision was soft , second one was fair , cafferkey went in with his feet , you cant do that in gaelic football , fair call , shane Enright should've been given black card for his foul on cillian oconnor for the penalty , that would equalled a red card and Kerry would've been down to 14 men

stekhli (Dublin) - Posts: 3121 - 30/08/2014 20:30:16    1644821

what have Meath refs got against Mayo. Two frees to Kerry in first period of extra time were very doubtful.

culmore (None) - Posts: 1398 - 30/08/2014 20:30:32    1644823

Sorry mes, but the ref is the most important man on the pitch, so I think its strange when I hear people say hes never responsible for the outcome. Im not saying it was intentional, and Mayo got some soft frees themselves, but hey, refs make mistakes. today was no different.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 30/08/2014 20:35:11    1644827

I'll be totally honest here and I'm completely neutral. Impossible game to ref. His fitness alone was unbelievable. BUT in the first half mayo got most of the calls. What was a free to mayo wasn't to Kerry. Overholding by mayo was a throw ball but by Kerry was a free to mayo. and then from half time on the pattern of refereeing changed and Kerry got most of the 50/50 calls including a few very soft free ins.

Malonemagic (Laois) - Posts: 766 - 30/08/2014 20:36:17    1644831

The referee was poor in general. Let double hops go and touching ball on ground. Basic errors of the game. B
Kerry should have had numerous black cards.

And the frees he gave Donaghy were a joke. Frees for being breathed on. But the standard of referring in general is terrible.

doratheexplorer (Cavan) - Posts: 1467 - 30/08/2014 20:38:30    1644835

Best team won, too easy to look for scapegoat in ref

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2142 - 30/08/2014 20:41:25    1644840

The pace of the game now is so quick that it's impossible to get every decision right. The ref has to watch 30 players and it doesn't help when mentors, "fans", physio's and the like are going at it everywhere. Time for us players, team managements and supporters to take responsibility for their actions and stop always blaming the ref. If this keeps up why would anyone become one. Every call made now is overanalysed with slow motions and of course the Benefit of hindsight. Sure they'll make mistakes, they know when they are wrong. They get 95% of calls right. I'm sure tomorrow both Donegal and Dublin will get calls against them. Just accept it and get on with the game. Remember when you kick a bad wide with nobody on you to win a game, don't blame a referee for a borderline call 15 mins earlier.

For the record I enjoyed the game and while at times it was scrapy some of the kicking by both teams was nothing short of exceptional. Everything was left on the pitch. Great stuff. Hopefully Donegal and Dublin serve up the same tommorrow. Hopefully the unsavoury scences near the end won't dominate the news but I wait with baited breath.

Bain (Donegal) - Posts: 470 - 30/08/2014 20:45:02    1644845

Poor refereeing performance in my opinion.

The two soft frees at the end of the first period of extra time were just laughable decisions. Frees for what? I know the ref has a lot to do and is under fierce pressure but surely a basic rule of thumb for any ref in any grade must be that before a free can be given there has to be a foul. A player in possession dropping himself on to the ground if he gets himself bottled up or on his wrong side does not constitute a foul. An opposition player has to do something illegal before the free can be given. Furthermore, the "foul" on Donaghy occurred half way between the goal and the sideline but the free, which was not moved in, was kicked from the angle of the large parallelogram. An awkward free turned into a tap over. What on earth are the other officials doing allowing this to go on I don't know.

Other things that annoyed me about the referees performance was his approach to black cards. Donncha Walsh committed a blatant black card foul in the first half whilst Shane Enright surely had to get a black card for the first penalty. That would have equaled a red as he was already on yellow. The laughable thing for me is that this very referee was throwing them around like snuff at a wake when Carlow played Waterford earlier this year. Three Carlow players got deserved black cards that day, one after another in a two minute spell near the end but I wondered at the time would this happen in a big game when maybe yellows would be dished out. I think that's what has happened as the year has progressed.

Another thing I found amusing both last Sunday and today was the number of line balls kicked from inside the line. Again this rule is applied absolutely rigidly by very zealous linesmen if the lessor teams are playing but unless it's blatant it's ignored in the bigger matches.

Overall, although a neutral I thought Mayo were very hard done by the referee today and that his bad decisions ultimately cost them. A further criticism I would make would be his use of the advantage rule where he gave the player a free if he didn't get a score as a result of the original free. My understanding is that if the player is getting an advantage and manages to get his kick in then that's it advantage over whereas this ref today was giving two chances!

Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1412 - 30/08/2014 20:45:17    1644847

Yes there were some dodgy calls, aren't there in every game!! But I feel for Mayo, their great support must endure another year of what if?? Ultimately today though I felt they just weren't good enough, overly reliant on Cillian O'Connor and haven't enough from midfield to full forward line, Kerry had and that was the difference

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 30/08/2014 20:48:02    1644852

Its completly impossible to get all the decisions correct in real time, (which is what is demanded of the ref). Between the pace of the game now, the cuteness of players in knowing how to get frees,off the ball incidents happening behind the refs back . Then when a foul happens which the ref briefly sees he has to decide the nature of the incident if it was a black ,yellow or red card. with rules that are open to interpetration.
They need more help not the usual "ah that ref wanted that team to win".
Players and management have to take responsibility . The scenes at the end were nothing to do with the ref.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 30/08/2014 20:51:32    1644854