Dublin swatted away Louth with ease in Portlaoise on Saturday evening, running out 26 point winners in their opening game of the Leinster Championship.
They did so despite playing the majority of the game with just 14 players. Forward Paul Mannion was sent off after 24 minutes for a challenge on Louth's Conall McKeever.
Speaking after the game, Dublin manager Jim Gavin defended his player, while also bringing up an incident from during the National League which saw Paddy Andrews sustain a broken jaw following a clash with Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan.
"My initial response was I thought it was very harsh," Mannion is quoted as saying by RTÉ.
Paul is a big man, six-foot-two, he didn’t drive into the tackle, I thought he more or less stood up and he certainly got the ball. He made contact with the Louth player, but I thought at worst it would have been a yellow card.
I was really shocked to see him sent off. The Louth player got up and played on, unlike Paddy Andrews back in March when he got a broken jaw. Two contrasting tackles.
Dublin are likely to appeal against the decision to send off Mannion. Their next outing will be on June 9th against either Kildare or Longford in the Leinster semi-final.
Picture credit: Sportsfile
