‘Well, they’ll stone you when you walk all alone
They’ll stone you when you are walking home
They’ll stone you and then say you are brave
They’ll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.'
BOB DYLAN'S lyrics are usually open to a variety of interpretations (and we’ll leave aside calls for WADA involvement), but Tyrone Gaels may feel those words could apply to them at present, as so often.
Although they’ve ended the jibes and won the Sam Maguire three times, the Red Hands regularly remain ‘on their own’.
On this occasion, let’s be clear, Tyrone deserve criticism, and their player Tiernan McCann in particular, for his theatrical tumble late in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Monaghan on Saturday.
Whether or not that actually led to Darren Hughes’s dismissal remains unclear at the time of writing. Referee Marty Duffy appeared to be writing in his notebook at the exact moment Hughes ruffled McCann’s hair, perhaps noting the punishment for the Monaghan man’s clash with Colm Cavanagh seconds earlier.
Yes, McCann is mostly to blame, but if Duffy had actually seen the incident he would have yellow-carded the Tyrone half-forward.
What did Marty Duffy actually see? If he guessed that Hughes struck McCann then that’s wrong on several levels.
Perceptions and reality can be very different. People often see what they want to see.
Although Tyrone have to take criticism when it’s deserved, as it is in this instance, criticism must be delivered consistently.
As Dylan’s last two lines have it:
‘But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.’
Fair play applies off the pitch as well as on it.
On the subject of stoning, some have turned to the Bible, quoting `Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’. But if we applied that policy to the right to express opinions then the world would be almost silent; we’re all sinners.
Past crimes of thuggery don't prevent someone having a valid opinion about simulation/ diving, even if they do point the GAA's continuing indulgence of physical violence. It's regarded as better to be dirty than a cheat, basically.
However, as hard as it is to listen to men who indulged in plenty of skulduggery – and skull-damaging – in their playing days giving lectures about morality, their message can still carry weight as long as they are consistent and sensible in their attitude.
But anyone who can describe a knee to the hinch swiftly followed by a punch to the side of the head as “minor contact” cannot be taken seriously and should really be ignored.
And when there has been silence about similar scenarios of play-acting, simply because they don't involve Tyrone as the culprits, then that's just as wrong as throwing yourself to the ground.
Call it certainly, call out Tyrone - but call it all fairly, without fear or favour.
Yes, some Tyrone players went down easily on Saturday, but so did some Monaghan men. Take off your blinkers and watch the match again and you’ll see that’s true.
Cast your mind back to the Derry-Down game in this year’s Ulster SFC. Down had a player sent off at the start of the second half after a Derry player fell to the ground holding his head.
Video evidence later showed that to be a very harsh red card, although it wasn’t overturned as the match wasn’t an All-Ireland semi-final and the player wasn’t from Dublin, Kerry, or Cork.
Yet the silence about that incident, especially from some usually very vocal people, was deafening.
Down being reduced to 14 men for almost the entire second half arguably had much more influence on the outcome of that game – which ended in a one-point Derry victory – than Monaghan losing Hughes in injury time, albeit just as six minutes of added time had been announced.
There’s also the aspect that Monaghan should have had a player red-carded midway through the second half, for that aforementioned `minor contact’ of a punch to the head.
Of course McCann shouldn’t have done what he did – but that also applies to plenty of things that happened on the pitch from both sides.
That’s what the referee and the rules are there for. Calls for retrospective punishment should not extend beyond the yellow card that is in the rule book for simulation (rule 5.4: `To attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury.’).
Maybe simulation of this sort should be punished by a red card, but that change needs to be brought in by Congress, not during a Championship.
Evidence of Tyrone’s transgressions can be found, of course, but so can evidence of hypocrisy and double standards towards the Red Hands.
Twice Tyrone teams have played Tipperary this year. Twice Tipperary players have stamped on Tyrone opponents (only once earning a red card though).
How much outcry has there been about either of those incidents? So little that the first culprit, rather than being suspended, was actually awarded the GAA/GPA’s official `player of the month’ accolade for the following month. So much for fair play.
Instead, the focus was on sledging. After the second match one southern journalist wrote `Always Tyrone’ in relation to a shoving match involving players from both sides – but not `Always Tipperary’ when mentioning the stamping.
In terms of holding up your hands and admitting you did wrong, there was more hypocrisy from one former Meath (yes, Meath) player on Twitter.
He tweeted `I hope Kerry knock seven shades out of these Tyrone lads ...that McCann lad needs a serious lesson given to him’.
When challenged by several people about that obvious call for thuggery, he unconvincingly claimed `who said anything about thuggery’, then implausibly added `I never once mentioned violence. Meant it in a pure footballing sense!!’
It’s obvious that many people contort themselves in order to condemn Tyrone’s crimes, but not those of others. Twisted, you might say.
By all means judge Tyrone – but judge them by the same standards as everyone else.
Everybody must get stoned.
