It seems the House Of Pain is an inescapable torment for Mayo after crashing out at the All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday. However, former Donegal manager Jim McGuinness has suggested that one incident in the game contributed to their downfall more than it should have.
Seamus O'Shea's tussle with Johnny Cooper was stupid, but was it a black card? Strict reading of the rules would suggest it may have been giving that he, technically, did drag him to the ground, but McGuinness believes referee Eddie Kinsella got the decision wrong.
Writing in his Irish Times column, the Donegal man has pointed to the decision as yet another example of why the black card has not heralded the positive revolution it was intended to.
I felt that it was a wrong interpretation of the rule and that it ought to have been a yellow card. In my opinion, he didn’t cynically take the Dublin player to the ground. He threw him aside after an off-the ball altercation.
It robbed Mayo of a critically important midfield figure and it is a shame that the black card, which has been prone to consistently problematic interpretations, can have such major bearing on a match of this magnitude.
McGuinness went on to say that, ultimately, it wasn't the the deciding factor 'that swung the game either way' but nonetheless it does seem a shame that we're talking about it at all.
