Anxious time for Mountbellew as referee’s report pulls no punches
Inside Track with John McIntyre
Mountbellew-Moylough’s defence of the Galway senior football title could be over before it even begins if the Connacht Council uphold the referee’s report into their controversial provincial semi-final defeat at Hyde Park in December.
The fallout from the heated post-match scenes after their 1-8 to 1-7 agonising loss to Padraig Pearses of Roscommon threatens to wreck the Galway champions’ hopes of holding onto the Frank Fox Cup in 2022, with up to seven Mountbellew-Moylough players facing suspensions.
Match referee Jerome Henry has thrown the book at nearly half of the Mountbellew-Moylough team for angrily confronting the Mayo official moments after the final whistle. The losing camp were left incensed by several disputed late decisions which cost them at least a draw with their Roscommon opponents.
Two of the big talking points in the closing minutes was Henry’s failure to award a free and a mark – which offered the potential of a winning score – in two separate incidents involving the same Mountbellew-Moylough player, Barry McHugh. Having covered the game, I was baffled by those controversial non-interventions.
McHugh had earlier been harshly black-carded for a push on opposition goalkeeper Paul Whelen after scoring a first half goal, while Mountbellew-Moylough’s growing frustrations would have boiled over after finishing a fractious affair with only 13 players – both midfielder Matthew Barrett and defender John Daly ending up on the sideline.
Even from a neutral’s perspective, it was impossible not to conclude that Mountbellew-Moylough had got a raw deal, but their angry post-match reaction which led to verbal abuse and some pushing of Henry and one of his linesmen has placed the club in the disciplinary dock, with hefty suspensions hanging over a number of their players.
Nobody can condone scenes of irate players surrounding and confronting a referee, and laying bare their grievances over his officiating. Henry didn’t do a good job, but he is a volunteer and players must be disciplined in such scenarios. The GAA have been clamping down on incidents involving referees and even mild interference with officials is being dealt with harshly.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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