The Black Card

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
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first_touch
All Star
Posts: 173
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:26 pm

The Black Card

Post by first_touch »

I am increasingly of the view that the Black Card, despite the good intentions behind its introduction, is a failure.

As I see it there are a number of fundamental flaws surrounding the black card:

1. It penalises the offending player but not necessarily the offending team. It some cases it even benefits the offending team where the substitute player goes on to have a bigger impact on the game than the player sent off was having. A perfect example of this was when Kildare brought on Tommy Moolick to replace the black-carded Gary White in the qualifier match against Offaly. Moolick played a key role in turning the game in Kildare's favour.

2. The offending team team still benefits from dragging down a player in the dying minutes of a game where the attacking team is endeavouring to level or win the match. While the offending player is black-carded his team can still gain an advantage as valuable time is used up and their opponents may be denied a crucial score. Again this was clearly evident in the Offaly-Kildare game when Mickey Conway 'took one for the team' by dragging down an Offaly player thereby using up much of the added-on time during which Offaly were chasing an equalising goal. What is particularly galling in such instances is that there does not seem to be any rule making referees add on more additional time.

3. Some sendings-off on black cards have been questionable to say the least. In particular, the' deliberate pulling down of an opponent' can be very difficult to adjudicate on. In some cases, the player with possession deliberately goes to ground, pulling the tackling player along with him, making it look like his opponent is the culprit. In other instances, players become entangled and simply fall over each other. In these kind of incidents there is no clear evidence of cynical play on the part of the player sent off (unlike the Mickey Conway incident) and a black card is ridiculously harsh.

4. We have the absurd situation where some challenges are far more dangerous than 'black card offences', yet only merit a yellow card. I am thinking here of the high or 'clothes line' tackle which can do serious injury to a player. Whether these tackles are deliberate or not is not the point. The point is they are dangerous and people are getting sent off (on both black and red) for a lot less.

5. It can be contended that the black card has contributed to the evolution to 'blanket' defending as teams don't want to be left one-on-one with attackers or chasing them down as they are through on goal. So much for the black card advantaging the attacking team!

All in all, I feel there is a need for a serious rethink about the Black Card. I don't think that tinkering around the edges with it will resolve the issues. Personally I would favour the ten-minute Sin Bin. I know it was trialed some years ago and quickly 'binned'. The main reason for this was that players were being sin-binned for yellow card offences, so it was being used too liberally and managers were up in arms.

If a Sin Bin was introduced for what are currently black card offences then both the offending player AND his team would be penalised. Sin bin offences could also include the high tackle around the neck or head and also diving and simulation which are becoming an increasing cancer in our game. Offences should, in so far as possible, be restricted to ones that are clearly deliberate, cynical and/or dangerous. In addition a time penalty should be introduced where a cynical foul is committed to deny opponents the possibility of a crucial score in the closing minutes of a game.

I would be interested to hear what others think about this issue.

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honey badger
Junior B
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 11:37 am
Club: Offaly

Re: The Black Card

Post by honey badger »

Get rid of this rule.

No consistency between refs and in actual games.

no problems in hurling without it.
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