ALL-IRELAND UNDER-21 FC FINAL: THE CORK under-21s will be without centre forward Shane McCarthy for Monday’s All-Ireland final against Down after his automatic four-week suspension was upheld by the Central Hearings Committee on Monday night. It could get worse for manager John Cleary, just back from his own touchline ban, as captain Colm O’Neill is unlikely to recover from a hamstring problem.
With seven minutes remaining in the semi-final defeat of Dublin on April 18th, a remarkable game for the 16 wides Dublin posted in a one-point loss, the excellent O’Neill limped off after hearing the one sound all athletes dread. “I heard it go pop,” said O’Neill yesterday. A fitness test is to be conducted on Saturday along with team-mates Brian Lombard and Barry O’Driscoll.
The McCarthy incident is more clear-cut after he became embroiled with a Dublin defender three minutes from the final whistle in Thurles. The incident was missed by television cameras and the written media as play was down the other end but on the umpire’s advice referee Martin Higgins flashed a red card.
A familiar scenario developed at Monday night’s hearing when the Dublin defender involved in the incident made a protest on behalf of McCarthy but the CHC, perhaps having seen such honour among players before, rejected the request for the red card to be overturned, standing by the referee’s report. “That is the case and he spoke very well on behalf of him,” said Cleary. “We were very thankful for that but the committee have made the decision.
“Maybe he must have felt there was something that wasn’t right there. I wasn’t party to it. There were other people looking after it.
“On the day nobody seemed to see it, maybe bar the umpire. Shane himself was adamant it wasn’t a sending-off offence but, look, we know it now and got to accept it and we can’t do anything about it. It’s very disappointing for Shane himself but as a squad we got to move on.”
Moving on, as Cleary said, is a meeting with Down and their legendary manager Pete McGrath. There are several survivors from last year’s Down side who were an excellent minor side in 2005 only to fall at the first hurdle, against Cavan, in 2008. Granted, their best minor player was Marty Clarke, who now plays Aussie Rules for Collingwood.
The final, which takes place in Portlaoise, looked certain at one point to be between Mayo and Dublin. Tipperary were supposed to beat Cork, Dublin were supposed to beat them as well and all this after Cleary’s Rebels had swept past a decent Kerry outfit.
Down beat Armagh in the Ulster final before impressively recovering to overcome Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final just four days later.
So, it turns out that Down and Cork will sort out the roll of honour on the Bank Holiday Monday, which was rightly switched from the weekend to ensure competition sponsors Cadbury and the match itself avoided a clash with the Heineken Cup semi-final in Croke Park on Saturday evening.
“We were just rolling on after the Armagh game,” said Down captain Timmy Hanna who was asked how the favourite’s tag sits on their young shoulders. “You never really know at underage so I think everyone has a fair chance.”
