The reality of the situation is that Dublin corner back Philly McMahon has been handed a one match ban for 'behaving in any way which is dangerous to an opponent'. When McMahon made contact with Kieran Donaghy's face during the All-Ireland final, it was inevitable that things would be given the full force of the public glare given the magnitude of the occasion.
There were no hostilities between Donaghy and McMahon in the days after the game and there were suggestions that the Ballymun Kickhams man would dispute the sanction but following a meeting in Croke Park, McMahon has accepted the suspension.
It must be said that if Donaghy had not made such a visible gesture to the referee, it's unlikely anyone would have noticed anything untoward. However, the Kerry forward was speaking to Radio Kerry on Tuesday when he offered a different take on those gestures, saying that they had nothing to do with McMahon at all.
My pointing going out was ‘why was it a hop ball? It was either a free in to me because I won it and there were three of them pulling out of me or a free out for over-carrying. ‘What’s the hop ball for?
He didn’t have an answer for me, he threw it up and we went on from there. We nearly got a break off it but unfortunately it didn’t work out. It was just that kind of a day for us where I think almost the harder we tried the worse it got.
Given the nature of the gesture, we'd suggest that not everyone will necessarily believe that revisionist take on events but we'll leave that up to you to decide.
Donaghy insisted no disciplinary action should be carried out in the wake of the All-Ireland final and said he never felt in danger of McMahon injuring his eyes.
An incident like that could be serious if it happened at a different time but for me it was never going to be anything long term or serious. It’s obviously something you’d like to stay away from in the game. I don’t think he meant it. Whether he did or didn’t, he’s the only one who knows. He was going for the ball, like he said, and I was going for the ball to the best of my abilities.
Philly McMahon will miss Dublin's first game of the League in 2016, which is incidentally against Kerry at the end of January.
[Examiner]
