should rename the ulster championship the blocking championship

johnnyc

i watched the donegal v armagh match over the weekend have to say the match was full of blocking something has to be done about this. if referees clamped down on players been blocked it would make the game more Enticing to watch

28064212

What do you mean by blocking? The man or the ball?

Waylander

I think he means blocking off the ball supporting runs. Both teams were guitly of it in the Donegal Armagh game, I have seenTyrone employ the same tactic on occassion also.

johnnyc

Something has to be done about it stopping people from getting involed in a move. the refs have to start booking players for it.

kaimera

Isn't it a bookable offence anyway?

The ref and umpires etc should have been able to clamp down on it but failed in that regard.

Mighty_Mouse

BTW Thought the ref made a balls of the match at the weekend.

Anyone else think the same

johnnyc

mighty mouse i dont actually blame the refs i recon it is the mind set of management for example the counties that seem to be blocking alot are the northern counties. the gaa should bring in a video referee to clean up the game and any player caught blocking should be booked. i recon the should get rid of the empires (mad scientist) and have a video ref

kaimera

did he tho?

Aside from 1 sending off which I thought was harsh...everything else was down to the two teams.

Feel free to point out where he was wrong as I initially felt he was bad aswell.

johnnyc

lets talk about the send off in the donegal v armagh i believe that players who were sent off deserved it

digiman

Well I thought the ref was very poor as well, I don't think anyone deserved to get sent of apart from Brian Roper who did actually swing a punch, Eamonn Mc Gee was just running and its natural for your elbows to swing back when you are running, especially when you have an Armagh player tugging on to you. Adrian Sweeny was just a shoulder and Beleuw did not to anything to get sent of, althought it makes up for all the times he should have been sent off and never was.

Donegal were still well in the game up until the ref went red crazy, and I have to admire the fight Donegal put in right till the end, even when they were 11 points down they still fought and got a few scores, brought the gap down to 5 or 6 points. I didn't think Armagh were that much better than Donegal on Saturday, they were perhaps more lucky with the terrible referees decisions. But then i'm from Donegal and have a slighlty biased opinion

johnnyc

dont agree with u there digiman i taught the donegal player deserved to go after elbowing the armagh player. but i also believe that armagh manager and a few players deserved to be send off. The armagh manager confronted the ref after the 1st half if i was ref he would be sent off.

digiman

When you are on about the Donegal player that got sent off for elbowing which player are you on about? I presume you are on about Mc Gee (first player to be sent of) imo he was just running away from the player, there is no way he deliberatily tried to elbow him, it was more of a natural thing when you are running away from a defending player. I you compare that to some of the other incidents at the weekend, Colm Coopers "proper" elbow, Ciaran Wheelan deliberate kick in the rib cage at the Wexford player, both incidents 10 times worse than what Mc Gee done, both of them players should of had straight reds, did Cooper get anything?

johnnyc

yes thats the name of the player he deserved to be sent off he gave the player a hand in the face he forcefully put a hand in to another person face straight red.

28064212

Yeah you're right about the blocking, but it's by no means an Ulster thing. Armagh would be the main proponents of it, but there was virtually none of it in the Cavan v Tyrone game. You'd see it in a lot of the short passing games, players going for the return ball from a one-two. It can be difficult enough for the ref to decide if it's blocking or if the attacker just didn't make an effort to go round the player or just plowed into him looking for the free

johnnyc

i hate the way they started hassling the refs lets talk about the armagh game , the armagh manager started hassling the ref he should get a touch line ban. the subs should be taken away from the sidelines in case of bust ups etc. the tyrone players started hassling the ref for a decesion at the end for giving a free to cavan the players those should be banned for 2 weeks.

Waylander

I know where you are coming from, and agree with you up to a point, but when ref's are getting big decisions wrong, and it has been happening this season, then I can understand the frustration of management and players. They give their heart and soul to the cause, only for a third party error being responsible for them losing. I'd be frustrated too I think.

Lemlin

Frustration is a big factor alright but its still not right to hassle the referee like Joe Kernan did and like the Tyrone players did after the Cavan game. In the end, it was the Cavan players who rushed in to try and help the ref leading to a scuffle.

Mighty_Mouse

I mostly agree with Digiman.

I suppose I always start from the viewpoint that its a mans game. At the same time nastiness needs to be eradicated. IMO sweeney and bellew were fierce hard done by.

I have cold sweats about ending up soccer type policy on tackling which IMO is where we are headed at the moment.

Championship games the linesman should have more power. Also we need to add a common sense rule where the game can be reffed in the context of the game.

We also need to properly address blocking. The appeals board is a joke cos they never overturn decisions.


Hopefully Laois will do something this year. God it was class seeing Galway win the allireland playing proper football

johnnyc

totally agree with u about galway wining the all ireland kerry a few years ago played very attractive football. the linesmen should get some kind of help along with the ref lets say someone in the studio would have the camera angles he/she could tell the ref or linesman if theres any off the ball stuff happening or if he linesman has made a wrong decesion. they could also be used if the useless empires don't give a score.

digiman

This next idea of mine is completely crazy I know but I think it would stop a lot of the of the ball stuff that happens in matches. The Donegal vs Armagh game had loads of it, and its only when you are at the game that you see it.
Imagine that there was an official watching each set of players that are marking each other, if the players knew that they could get booked for the blocking players running and other of the ball stuff it might stop them doing it. It would incourage the game to be more free flowing. These officialls could be linked to the ref with a mic and let him know what is going on.

Crazy idea I know and probably impossible to implement!!

28064212

You mean like 15 extra officials? You're right, it would be very difficult to implement. Interesting idea though. Things would be a lot better if the damn umpires would get involved though. The linesmen have started to become more into it, actually getting the ref's attention if they see something. A great example of this was in the Cavan/Tyrone game, where one of the Tyrone players indulged in a shameless, obvious bit of diving, soccer-style. The ref didn't give a free for it (played advantage I think), but the next time the ball went out of play, the linesman called the ref over and told him what happened.
But you could decapitate someone in the box and the umpires still wouldn't say a word unless the ref specifically asked him

Lemlin

15 extra officials! It'll never happen and would make a farce of the game.

Something does have to be done to stop teams like Tyrone though who play to get near the opposition's goal and then win frees. The game is about playing football, not free taking.

Stabshauptmann

Umpires are refs. Its not their job to spot stuff and if th ey do spot stuff they're not supposesd to tell the ref.

Its a pity, but thats the way it is (according to Tommy Lyons anyway)

Lemlin

Yep, Pat McEnaney, the best ref in the country IMO, was umpiring the Cavan Tyrone game last Sunday.

28064212

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Umpires are refs. Its not their job to spot stuff and if th ey do spot stuff they're not supposesd to tell the ref.

?? That's meant to read "Umpires are not refs", right?

They are match officials, and if they see see something that the ref didn't or couldn't see, they should definitely inform him. Telling the ref that "Blue 8 was holding onto red 9" is not telling him how to do his job, it's giving him extra information to help him do his job.
I'm not saying they should have the power to stop play and call a free, but if, for example, a forward deliberately fouls a defender to get a chance at a point, or if he dives to win a free, and the ref is taken in, the umpire should inform him of what he saw and allow him the opportunity to change his decision.
This is especially relevant due to the umpires unique position, as the ref is generally behind play when the ball is near the umpires, so he can find it difficult to see what's going on if the forward is facing goal

28064212

Lemlin wrote:

Yep, Pat McEnaney, the best ref in the country IMO, was umpiring the Cavan Tyrone game last Sunday.

What were you talking about here Lemlin?

Lemlin

Kaptain Redeye's point that umpires are actual referees.