UPS AND DOWNS Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea and Fermanagh’s Che Cullen plead their case moments before referee Joe McQuillan awarded a penalty last Saturday. Pic: Conor McKeown





Comment

Billy Joe Padden



DESPITE what some people might have you believe, it’s not Aidan O’Shea’s responsibility to protect the integrity and the good name of Gaelic football. That’s the responsibility of the officials and the administrators.

Aidan O’Shea’s responsibility is to his make sure that he does whatever he can for his team, his team-mates, and Mayo.

If Aidan felt contact from the Fermanagh full-back last Saturday and went to ground, then it’s the job of the referee and the umpires to adjudicate on it.

I personally didn’t think it was a penalty, but it was Joe McQuillan’s decision to make. His mistake.

Aidan O’Shea tried to get an advantage for his team from a defender making contact with him inside the large parallelogram.

When somebody in that area of the field makes contact with you, and you’re both travelling at pace, then there’s always the chance of a referee awarding a free out or a penalty.

The word ‘diving’ has been bandied about over the last few days in relation to the incident, but I don’t buy into that.

Things like holding an arm and going to ground, feeling a slight nudge when you’re running down a blind alley and winning a free, they are things that are generally applauded when it’s your team that are getting the benefit of the doubt.

And the reality is that they’re part and parcel of the GAA.

To be honest, they’ve been part and parcel of it for as long as I’ve been playing. Making the most of a late hit, feeling a nudge in your back jumping for a ball and making a song and dance about it.

The likes of Aidan O’Shea, Michael Murphy and Conor McManus are dealing with being held and being fouled all the time. So when they get a chance to get some retribution, what do we expect them to do?

How frustrating must it be for them to be constantly pulled and dragged and abused?

The furore about this incident is the perfect storm for some people.

It involves one of the highest profile footballers in the country in Aidan O’Shea, who’s also one of the biggest and strongest footballers in the game going to ground easily; and a Mayo team not playing well at the moment.

Plus, after what happened with the Mayo management last year there are people out there who want to vilify this Mayo team at every opportunity.

I feel very strongly about the word ‘cheat’ being used by certain pundits and analysts in relation to Aidan O’Shea and the penalty. Calling somebody a ‘cheat’ for something like this is an outrageous statement to make.

What’s the difference between what Aidan did, and somebody winning a free out the field when they’re pushed over after bending down to pick up a ball?

Neither of them is cheating as far as I’m concerned. Taking performance-enhancing drugs is cheating.

For the rest of the championship, Aidan O’Shea needs to be ready for two things. Firstly, starting next weekend, he’s going to get plenty of abuse from opponents about what’s happened. And he’s going to have to deal with that.

Plus, he’s going to get a backlash from referees.

They’re human and they’re going to think twice about every single decision involving Aidan for the rest of the summer.