Yet again we have the outcome of big games being decided by poor decisions by officials. Blatant point missed by umpires. How McEnaney missed the square ball beggars belief.(not the umpires decision to give a square ball) Surely he could have asked them though.

GrizzlyAdams (Tyrone) - Posts: 576 - 29/08/2010 18:10:08    759306

disgraceful

hipster (Dublin) - Posts: 2509 - 29/08/2010 18:15:11    759315

Its time to give Refs a bit of slack, Amateur game and Amateur refs its getting harder and harder to recruit officials .

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 29/08/2010 18:27:31    759333

GrizzlyAdams
County: Tyrone
Posts: 91

759306
Yet again we have the outcome of big games being decided by poor decisions by officials. Blatant point missed by umpires. How McEnaney missed the square ball beggars belief.(not the umpires decision to give a square ball) Surely he could have asked them though.

he did ask them.

shapes42 (Cavan) - Posts: 383 - 29/08/2010 18:30:54    759345

Kildare had plenty of time to rectify things if they had been good enough.
It wasnt like they got hit with a last minute sucker punch.
What about all the wides they kicked?
It all evens out in the end.
McEneaney may not referee strictly by the rules but he is generally the same for both teams so ......

Only downside is the Down people will be hard to listen to ..... great motivation for the rest of Ulster though for next year!!!!

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 29/08/2010 18:33:25    759348

Too many big games being affected by poor officiating.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 29/08/2010 18:35:23    759351

Rubbish. Rarely happens despite the lighting of one decision.

What beat Kildare was not the goal decision but the fact that they missed a rake of scores and the Down midlfield.

If you diagree the put your money where your mouth is and become a ref and show us how its done.

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 29/08/2010 19:17:06    759394

its getting ridiculous now. Too many games being decided by incompetent refereeing

gaelplatt (Mayo) - Posts: 3 - 29/08/2010 19:19:54    759403

witnof, as Pat Spillane said, Kildare were beaten by two points. They had one point disallowed and the Down goal should have been disallowed. That's two crucial basic errors on the part of umpires that obviously changed the course of the game. No-one obviously knows what outcome of match would have been had those decisions gone the other way, but it might well have been a different outcome.

I have no brief for Kildare and in truth don't particularly like them and had no preference as to who won. Likewise with the Leinster final, where I would have liked to see Louth win as they hadn't won for a long time but Meath would usually be my second team. Fact is though that again an officiating error was crucial.

My point is that at this level such obvious errors should not be the deciding factor in games and we have seen a lot of examples of it this year. If the officials - and I'm talking more about umpires and sideline men - are not competent then in big games that are televised the ref should have video replay same as in rugby. Argument is that this would have to be extended to all games but that is red herring. Club - that is real club - rugby doesn't have it but at top level where these mistakes are being made then it is needed.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 30/08/2010 08:27:34    759644

Seems we more concerned nowadays whether a player steps over the sideline taking a sideline kick than we are about getting big goalmouth calls right..
Its unbelievelable that we cant get these big calls right in big games..Why not use Video evidence in Croke Park at least..That would be a start.
Ref was only 35 m away from the Square ball incident so he seen it.And he bottled the penalty in the last few minutes when it clearly shows the Down player lying on the ball inside the small square

richiej (UK) - Posts: 1430 - 30/08/2010 09:37:10    759684

What cost Kildare was the awful wides, bad luck for hitting the upright twice, having a small keeper who regardless of the square ball decision should have got his fist to the ball and cleaned Coulter out of it in the process, and the turning over of posession. You can't do that and get to an all Ireland. The same mistakes won't be made next year.

Daith (Kildare) - Posts: 1172 - 30/08/2010 10:07:31    759712

richiej your spot on.. the officials are looking for more technical fouls than the blatently obvious ones

madden (Kildare) - Posts: 293 - 30/08/2010 10:12:02    759717

Daith
County: Kildare
Posts: 429

759712 What cost Kildare was the awful wides, bad luck for hitting the upright twice, having a small keeper who regardless of the square ball decision should have got his fist to the ball and cleaned Coulter out of it in the process, and the turning over of posession. You can't do that and get to an all Ireland. The same mistakes won't be made next year.

YOU ARE BANG ON THERE DAITHI

MuineachanAbu (Monaghan) - Posts: 661 - 30/08/2010 10:12:58    759719

The Kildare goal should have been stopped for over carrying as the scorer took ten steps without a solo or a bounce before rounding the keeper and kicking it into the net. The Down goal should have been disallowed for a square ball. The Kildare point in the first half should have been a point, however Kildare got some handy frees after the Down goal... It all evens itself out in fairness lads.

If Down had lost, people would be angry at the amount of steps taken for the Kildare goal. It's just the way it is. Lets just congratulate Down on a well deserved victory yesterday, and congratulations for Kildare's performance and comiserations in their defeat.

CC1 (Cavan) - Posts: 65 - 30/08/2010 10:57:59    759783

We can argue all day abouts the rights and wrongs of either goal !! What lost the game for Kildare was their inability to score from easy frees. They have only themselves to blame as the missed two or three very easy ones !!

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 30/08/2010 11:15:43    759811

The linesmen should play an more active part in square ball decisions same as the linesmen do in soccer when someone is deemed to be off-side. The linesman should raise their flag to assist the ref if they see that a player was in the square before ball.

The point that Kildare scored which was not given is imo difference between Kildare exiting the championship and the game going to a replay.

Instead of Kildare having to shoot for a goal at the very end a point for Kildare from that free would have been suffice to bring the game to a replay.

BallsMcQ (USA) - Posts: 941 - 30/08/2010 11:46:46    759889

Bad calls on critical decisions are unfortunately part of the game; officials do not intentionally make mistakes, the same way players do no but it happens; if refs, linesmen and umpires were to officiate by the letter of the law we would not have the tension and drama we had yesterday.

KevHill (Antrim) - Posts: 271 - 30/08/2010 11:53:48    759906

We can argue all day abouts the rights and wrongs of either goal !! What lost the game for Kildare was their inability to score from easy frees. They have only themselves to blame as the missed two or three very easy ones !!


No, the best team won.

51longago (Mayo) - Posts: 2981 - 30/08/2010 11:53:56    759907

what is lost in all this it doesnt matter what happened after the goal, it was not goal at all but a free out kildare were dominating the game and if goal was dissallowed nobody knows how the game would go. i know kildare missed a lot of chances and down were the better team after the "goal" was scored that was the turning point.

chicago09 (Kerry) - Posts: 694 - 30/08/2010 12:12:07    759932

Down were the better team overall but its still possible the square ball changed the course of the game as Kildare were on top at the time..What i cant understand is the no comment from McEnaney since.....He has been very forward with his coments on other refs mistakes backing them up but when he makes a big mistake himself we hear nothing from him...........SO COME ON PAT LETS HEAR FROM YOU THAT YOU GOT IT WRONG.

richiej (UK) - Posts: 1430 - 30/08/2010 12:44:59    760000