Recurrent fouling still needs to be tackled

ON GAELIC GAMESSunday's final showed just why next month's Special Congress must consider radical new proposals, writes Sean Moran

SO, HOW was 2008 for you? First up, it's worth being grateful for an All-Ireland that proved the competitive pinnacle of the season, as opposed to recent years when both the football and hurling finals have been pageants.

That will hardly be much consolation to Kerry, whose renewed sense of self-esteem after winning those back-to-back All-Irelands, apparently consigning its Ulster problems to the past, has been plunged back into remorseful doubt.

Fittingly, at the end of a season when the GAA's disciplinary process has taken a pounding, there was a less happy reflection of where the game stands in terms of discipline and foul play.

Willingness to concede frees wasn't peculiar to either team on Sunday but just a fortnight before next month's Special Congress there was a 70-minute crash course in the rationale behind the most controversial proposal before congress - dismissal of players for one yellow card and their replacement by a substitute for the rest of the game.

The big concern about the recommendation is that even if accepted it won't be implemented and just as there is currently a reluctance to send off players on red cards, there will be similar disinclination to implement the proposed new rule.

But the one aspect of the rules that looked most deficient on Sunday was the lack of sanction for repeated infraction, for instance suspension for accumulated yellow cards. That won't be relevant if the new proposals are accepted but it has been little short of insane that disruptive fouling has been so little discouraged over the years.

Tyrone consistently fouled when under offensive threat. It's a matter of interpretation whether that constitutes indiscipline, as it is clearly part of a defender's repertoire, but it certainly wasn't being discouraged. Referee Maurice Deegan had a reasonably good match but was bewilderingly reluctant to tick or flash yellow cards for Tyrone fouls.

Kerry conceded fewer frees but picked up more yellow cards, a reflection of their more blatant fouling and tendency to put in high challenges. The team was definitely guilty of indiscipline, a recurring theme during the season, and the two fouls committed just before the break by Darragh Ó Sé and Aidan O'Mahony were recklessly borderline at a critical stage of the match.

Even Paul Galvin, after the furore of this season's suspension, managed to earn a yellow card within six minutes of coming in as a replacement.

There are no grounds for saying that one side benefited decisively from the commission of fouls or that the result was in any way affected but there is at present no fear of the rules. Teams do what they feel like doing and without any apprehension that the consequences of misbehaviour will outweigh the advantage.

Maybe the new disciplinary package will make a difference; then again maybe it won't even be passed by congress.

Back with the football, it has of course been pointed out that the current problem for Kerry is more to do with Tyrone than Ulster in general. After all, the county is showing a positive balance with Armagh after four championship matches this decade and have also beaten Fermanagh, Derry and Monaghan in the same period. But it does maintain the historical difficulty the county has had with northern counties throughout history.

What's particularly unsettling about the relationship with Tyrone is that on each occasion Kerry would have believed that they had the problem solved. They were certainly on notice for all three matches. A league fixture in Killarney had clearly spelled out the scale of the challenge that Mickey Harte's team posed in 2003 but Kerry were still blitzed by their opponents' energy and commitment.

Two years later Jack O'Connor had absorbed many of the lessons of that defeat. His team were working harder, its defenders were more versatile and physically they were prepared. No difference. Kerry still couldn't play their optimum game at the same pace and under the pressure that Tyrone could exert.

Kieran Donaghy's remarkable contribution to the team was made possible by O'Connor's tactical switch in 2006 and although he stepped down at the end of that season his blueprint remained and looked the final structural alteration that would make Kerry able to cope with a running, pressing game. A ball-winner on the inside meant early passes could be quickly dispatched and securely in the knowledge Donaghy would win them.

That was to be the trump card that would outdo Tyrone. Yet, despite an adequate share of ball, Kerry were unable to convert that possession into telling passes and the tenacity of the winners' defence took care of the rest.

For Tyrone to win was a great encouragement to other counties. As noted by Paddy Heaney in the Irish News last week, the fact that a well-drilled team can overcome opponents with individually more gifted players is a heartening endorsement of the collectivist ethos at the heart of team sports. Luck does play a part as well and the fractional distances that made possible Tommy McGuigan's goal and thwarted Declan O'Sullivan's attempt with five minutes to go had a big impact on the outcome.

But ultimately there was no doubting the merit of Tyrone's victory.

Confidence in their game plan, unflappable temperament and an extraordinary ability to play at a relentless pace were the hallmarks of the success and all the more striking for the assumption the team had slipped away as a competitive force.

Finally, there has been an awful lot of interest in the question of which county deserves the accolade of the decade's top performer. This is only a subplot to Kerry's current agonising narrative and a county with 35 fairly evenly distributed All-Irelands isn't likely to get too hung up on the exact years in which they fall but it's the sort of topic for which sports followers have an insatiable appetite.

With four titles, Kerry are obviously the most successful side of the decade and with just one year left they can't be overtaken. The dark shadow of the "three and zip" balance with Tyrone falls on that record but can't eclipse it.

When people think of teams of the decade, however, they're not really contemplating the roll of honour but a less tangible consideration. For instance Cork and Tipp won more hurling All-Irelands during the years in question but Wexford would still be most people's choice as the team of the 1950s.

Tyrone should enjoy this decade in the present tense and let posterity look after itself.

e-mail: smoran@irish-times.ie