By John Harrington
Dublin defender James McCarthy has warned some players are deliberately trying to get their opponents black-carded by feigning injury.
Tripping an opponent or deliberately checking his run are two black-card offences, but McCarthy believes they are open to abuse by players who deliberately seek contact or feign it in certain situations.
“I think there is an element coming into the game now of guys feigning maybe, putting guys off or feigning injury and stuff,” says McCarthy.
“Nobody wants that in the game. It’s definitely something we wouldn’t want to buy into and I wouldn’t buy into myself. I’d hate to put a guy off by pretending to go down or something like that. I wouldn’t do it.
“But I guess that (black card) opens up that it can be done. Maybe some teams are willing to do that as well. I don’t think anybody wants that.”
McCarthy was black-carded himself in the drawn All-Ireland Final against Mayo after an off-the-ball collision with Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor. He reacted angrily at the time and still believes he was hard-done by.
“I suppose in the heat of the moment I was thick. I might have felt he went down probably a bit easier than he should. I don’t know how many times in a game where guys crash into each other like that.
“It’s just part of the game. You get on with it. It wasn’t Cillian that gave me the black card in fairness. We did clash fairly hard and one of us would have went down."
McCarthy might not have agreed with his own black-carding that day, but he does admit the introduction of the black card has been an overall positive for the game because it has cut down on the amount of cynical fouling.
“In fairness, the black card is great because if I have the ball at half back and I pop it off it stops you getting checked, which was a big thing in the game before it,” he says. “That’s probably gone out of the game now. That’s obviously a big help for attacking half backs.
"The idea of the black card is right, to try and stop that cynical fouling and stuff. But it's the way it's being implemented; it's just very inconsistent. Getting put off for…one moment you're put off for something that's barely a free, and the next moment some guys are getting away with cynical fouls.
"I personally think there should be a better way of dealing with it. I think a sin bin might be a good way of doing it. Gone down to 14 men for ten minutes in a big game – that's a pretty big punishment for a team…you're on the ropes then really."
McCarthy was Dublin’s best player during their victorious Allianz League campaign and impressed in the early rounds of the Championship too before a knee injury in training ruled him out of the Leinster Final against Westmeath and the All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal.
He then suffered a shoulder injury when he returned for the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry that limited his training in the run up to the drawn All-Ireland, so when he was black-carded in that match he was starting to wonder had he walked under a ladder somewhere.
"Just distraught,” says McCarthy. “What happened before, and then this happens now, you're kind of going 'I'm not going to get a break this year’.
“I was just angry initially. Of all things, an All-Ireland final and you're preparing yourself for it, you don't expect that to happen.
"Just mixed emotions at the end of the game because we were in a position to win it, and we didn't. Obviously you're thinking 'At least I have a chance to play the next day'. So, kind of weird emotions after it."
It all worked out well in the end. McCarthy was one of Dublin’s best players in the replay, and admits he was fired up to produce a big performance after his black-card in the drawn game.
"I felt I kind of owed the team a big enough performance, so on a personal level I was really driven for the game. And I was happy I played in the second game, I thought I was motoring well.
“On a personal level I had a tough summer, picking up different injuries and stuff. I was just delighted to win it on the pitch in the end. Obviously the first match, getting a black card was not ideal. But personally it (the All-Ireland win) was right up there – and as a team, of course, winning back-to-back was great."
By winning back to back All-Irelands he was following in the footsteps of his father John who played on the Dublin team that won the ’76 and ’77 Finals.
“It’s obviously a good thing for the family, Dad would be very supportive, I try and rise him and get a bit of jealousy out of him but nothing like that at all,” says McCarthy.
“I haven’t thought about it too much but it’s a special thing to do as a family. Mam is very proud at home, my brother is obviously very supportive so it’s a nice thing to do, not too many families in Ireland have done it so something to look back on.”
McCarthy has now won four All-Ireland titles in the last six years. The 26-year-old is a footballer in his prime, and he’s determined to continue those winning ways as long as he keeps pulling on that Dublin jersey.
“When you keep winning…I was watching that show on RTE the other day, Henry Shefflin was on it, they were saying that they think it eases off as you go on but I find it the other way, I want more, you get a taste for it.
“Once you get a break after a couple of weeks, you start thinking about it and you miss it, you miss going back training and the competition and stuff.
“I never had any problem motivating myself, obviously we’ve had a great couple of years but you wanna keep going and I think we’re in a good position to push on again next year.
“On a personal level I get a kick out of the win, I get a kick out of those big games, how tight they be and being on the other side of them is a special feeling.
“I wouldn’t say it’s like a drug but you kind of want it more and more as you keep going, you know?”