Shameful scenes at Croke Park have no place in the game as Armagh and Galway managers condemn full-time brawl

Scrapping match: Armagh and Galway representatives get involved in an ugly and nasty brawl at the end of normal time at Croke Park

©INPHO/Evan Treacy

Scrapping match: Armagh and Galway representatives get involved in an ugly and nasty brawl at the end of normal time at Croke Park

Frank Roche Twitter Email

June 27 2022 07:50 AM

Where to begin amid the chaos and the carnage of yesterday’s ‘curtain-raiser’ headline bout?

In normal circumstances, the agony and the ecstasy of a first ever Croke Park penalty shootout to decide a senior football championship match would be the obvious starting point.

Not here. The brawl trumps all.

Not just because of its prolonged ugliness. Or its timing — right at the end of normal-time, as both sides made a simultaneous beeline for the Cusack Stand tunnel, with consequences that were both shocking and yet sadly predictable.

Or because, amid the mayhem, TV footage showed Damien Comer on the receiving end of an apparent eye-gouging from a member of the extended Armagh panel, causing a furious reaction from some Galway team-mates.

It required every last second of the long interregnum before extra-time for referee David Coldrick to conduct a forensic disciplinary audit with his fellow officials. Maybe it was no harm that the skies took on a darkened biblical hue, if only to dampen the mood.

There followed red cards for Galway skipper Seán Kelly and Armagh joint-captain Aidan Nugent. God only knows what metric, bar their leadership roles, could be used to decipher the more culpable?

“The scenes at full-time, they were ugly, they shouldn’t be happening — but they happened at the same time,” Galway boss Pádraic Joyce reflected when it was all over, many moons and turning points and penalties later.

“Then we lost our captain in extra-time. I don’t understand how they pick out one player, but we’ll look at the video.”

As matters stand, Kelly will miss the All-Ireland semi-final against Derry.

Then again, this year’s journey through the GAA’s alphabet soup of disciplinary committees has become more of a lottery than penalty shoot-outs.

Asked about the Comer incident, Joyce was caught unawares.

“So you’re telling me there was an eye gouge then?” he asked. “Sure that’ll be dealt with. I didn’t see it, honest to God, I was the far side of the pitch. I came over, I saw scuffles going on, I tried to pull our lads away and that was all I did.”

Soon after, it was Kieran McGeeney’s turn to face the media. As he absorbed the ‘what if?’ agonies of defeat on penalties to end his eighth campaign, he lamented the erratic nature of Armagh’s performance, conceding: “We didn’t put our best foot forward for most of the game.”

But most people still wanted to know what he thought of the row.

“It’s not something you want to see. And I suppose this year, that’s two of them we have sort of been in and it’s unfortunate,” McGeeney accepted (at which point the pedants will remind that it was melee number three, after Tyrone and Donegal).

“Those things shouldn’t happen, definitely shouldn’t, but there are a few simple things we could do to stop it. They shouldn’t be running in together at half-time,” he expanded, adding that “once it starts then it can get out of control.

“But again then, trial by social media is a very poor way to go. It showed the last time, when people had actually sat down and watched the video, they might have got it right instead of listening to people.”