Joe Sheridan gave one of most memorable post-match interviews in Gaelic football history when he proclaimed his last gasp effort in the 2010 Leinster Final 'a perfect goal'.
Notwithstanding the goal's perfection, Joe immediately added the proviso that 'it was a penalty if it wasn't a goal', a daring strategy which involved making two separate arguments at once.
The Meath county board PR machine quickly decided that Joe's description of the goal as 'perfect' wasn't quite tenable, and they offered their sympathy to the Louth county board if not a replay. But the memory of Joe's post-match stubbornness inspires us still.
Andy Moran made a shot for Joe's title this week in an interview with the Western People. Aidan O'Shea has been widely condemned for his apparent dive on Saturday, although not quite as much as was Tiernan McCann last year.
The fact that McCann's dive occurred during a break in play and was in some way connected to his elegantly maintained hairstyle seemed to make it more viscerally offensive to people.
Either way, Moran has shot to the defence of his colleague. While his manager Stephen Rochford only went so far as to say that there was 'certainly contact' before arguing that O'Shea gets no protection from referees generally and was overdue a bit of luck, Moran went much further and baldly insisted that it was in fact a penalty. A penalty all the way, no less. A verdict even Joe McQuillan has surely renounced at this stage.
It was a penalty all the way. It was a pull-back and it was a penalty. Cillian's one was even more of a penalty a few minutes beforehand. That was a certain penalty just like the one in Limerick (against Kerry in the notorious 2014 semi-final replay) a few years ago.
Moran referenced Cillian O'Connor's penalty shout midway through the second half, which was inexplicably rejected by the referee.
Aside from Moran's intervention, the official line from Mayo appears to be that they've been ridden enough times by refs down the years that they're not going to be making any apologies for this lucky break.
