February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Managers and players will always gripe when a change of attitudes is foisted upon them and last Sunday ran true to form. In no fewer than three of the five games, six players were sent to the sin bin, and in a fourth — Longford v UCD — four more found themselves cooling down for 10 minutes. After each of the final whistles came inevitable protestations of not having been involved in dirty games.
“I think the new rule is very confusing,” said Wicklow manager Paddy Canning, who saw four of his players sent to the bin. “Fellas are being sent off for very trivial things. Then stoppages are taken out of the time they are off the field, so you don’t know when a player is to come back on.”
Mick O’Dwyer, who was on the panel who came up with the new rule, was understandably less outraged, although he did concede that a few more things could have been let go and that perhaps a 5- rather than 10-minute period of banishment would be more appropriate.
Laois gave O’Dwyer his first win in the competition with a 2-13 to 2-11 victory over Offaly in Portlaoise. Despite neither side being at full strength, it was a cracking game, one that saw a stirring second-half rally from Offaly come up just short despite David Egan’s late goal, which brought the margin — which had once stood at 7 points — to 2.
Elsewhere, Louth took their goal chances when they came to sail past DIT by 4-11 to 2-9. In Longford, the home side had an early Derek Smyth goal to thank for keeping daylight between them and UCD, eventually running out 1-10 to 0-9 winners. In Aughrim, a Dublin side made up completely of Under-21 players just about scraped through a slog of a game against Wicklow, ending the afternoon with the scoreboard at 0-10 to 1-5 in their favor. And the surprise of the day came in Freshford, where Kilkenny not only played in, but won, a football match, beating Athlone IT, 2-11 to 1-12. It’ll never catch on, surely.
DR. McKENNA CUP
The first round of games in the McKenna Cup threw up impressive wins for Tyrone and UUJ, rather tighter ones for Monaghan and Armagh, and a 0-8 to 0-8 draw between Donegal and Fermanagh, most notable for the return of the Gallagher cousins to the All-Ireland semifinalists’ fold. The game between Queen’s University and Derry didn’t survive the cold weather.
Tyrone hammered Cavan by 3-14 to 0-7 in a result with which Cavan manager Eamonn Coleman declared himself “embarrassed and disgusted.” Peter O’Reilly of Cavan and Tyrone captain Brian Dooher were both sent off in a game where the Tyrone forwards pretty much scored at will, Stephen O’Neill and Owen Mulligan in particular taking advantage of atrocious Cavan marking.
Jordanstown’s 2-13 to 1-7 win over Antrim at Casement Park was another washout, with the students taking the lead from the first attack and never yielding it. In Clones, Monaghan scraped out a 0-8 to 0-7 win over St. Mary’s College despite having to play three quarters of the game with 14 men, wingback John Paul Mone having been sent off midway through the first half.
Armagh’s 1-6 to 1-3 win over Down, meanwhile, was every bit as dour as the scoreline suggests, with only the performance of newcomer Barry Murray worth a raise of the eyebrow. Murray, who was called into the Armagh panel after he starred on the TG4 series “The Underdogs,” looked by far the liveliest player on the pitch and chipped in with 1-3 of his team’s total.