THE GAA’S Central Competitions Control Committee will be awaiting the report of referee Michael Duffy after unruly scenes in yesterday’s AIB All-Ireland club football semi-final in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds.
Hot favourites Portlaoise ended up losing to Clare champions Kilmurry-Ibrickane and in the process had two players sent off, triggering furious protests from the Leinster champions at both half-time and on the final whistle when Sligo official Duffy, a brother of last year’s All-Ireland referee Marty, had to be escorted off the field by gardaí after being accosted by a Portlaoise supporter.
Within 15 seconds of the start Portlaoise wing back Brian Mulligan had launched a high tackle on Kilmurry’s Shane Hickey and the referee showed him a straight red card. At half-time Duffy was confronted by Portlaoise officials, including manager John Mulligan, father of the dismissed player.
Speaking afterwards Mulligan senior was again critical of the referee. “I thought it was a joke. If the man has a conscience, he won’t sleep for a long time. I don’t want to sound a bad loser but it was an absolute joke of a refereeing decision. The man seemed to be out to make a name for himself.
“He (Mulligan junior) caught him a bit high, it was definitely a free but a yellow would have sufficed. There is no such thing as consistency. One of their players came in as a sub, hopped off one of our lads and the referee did nothing. I asked him about it at half-time and he wasn’t going to entertain me.”
Mulligan’s Kilmurry-Ibrickane counterpart Michéal McDermott not surprisingly saw things differently, saying the referee had made the right call in showing a red card.
“The referee made a call on the dangerous tackle early on and if that happens, you’ve to go off for it. I thought he did a good job today and it was sad to see the scenes on the field there with the referee.”
The second sending-off took place nine minutes into the second half when Portlaoise cenrefielder Brian McCormack was dismissed for a second yellow card. The first had been issued in injury-time at the end of the first half for dissent and the second for a foul.
It was the fourth time since winning the Clare championship Kilmurry have found themselves up against 14 men and they exploited the advantage with great efficiency in a performance of sustained commitment, against which Portlaoise appeared to lose their composure, going down to a heavy 0-8 to 1-14 defeat.
Kilmurry will be Clare’s first representatives in the St Patrick’s Day football final but their opponents won’t be known until next weekend at the earliest, as yesterday’s other scheduled semi-final, between Galway’s Corofin and St Gall’s of Belfast, was postponed because overnight snow in Dublin left Parnell Park unplayable.
The CCCC will today confirm refixture details for all of the weekend’s postponed matches but it is expected the Corofin-St Gall’s encounter will go ahead at the same venue next Saturday at 2pm (the Dublin hurlers are at home to Tipperary in the NHL the following day).
Saturday’s NHL curtain raiser, between Kilkenny and Tipperary, which had to be postponed because of the snow on Saturday night in Thurles has been refixed for Semple Stadium tomorrow night at 8pm
Other fixtures called off because of weather were the following NHL matches: Laois v Kildare in Division Two; Armagh-Mayo in Division Three A; Fingal-Wicklow in Division Three B; and Division Four matches Monaghan-Fermanagh and Longford-South Down.
