It feels like much of the outrage directed towards Paudie Clifford for his All-Ireland final speech is fake.
How could anyone take what he said too seriously?
Are his detractors as shocked and appalled as they’re letting on, or are they just using it to reaffirm their own stance in the ongoing and highly entertaining Tyrone versus Kerry tit-for-tat war, which has waged for 20 years now?
The GAA must dread it when any competition throws up a Tyrone/Kerry pairing, particularly in a final, because there is a clear, deep seated dislike of each other there.
Dislike is being nice about it.
Clifford labeling his own sending off as “unbelievable” was, well, unbelievable and came across as bizarre and unnecessary, considering Fossa had the trophy.
But was it really any worse than that? Was it damaging to refereeing and did it really bring the game into disrepute?
Hardly.
If he could go back again, he probably wouldn’t have said it but he did.
The double All Star also praised the match officials in his speech. This bit of context, while standard fare in a captain’s speech, appears to have gone unnoticed.
Clifford was also commenting on one decision relating to himself.
He clearly feels what he did was a harmless pull to the head of an opponent and not a red card.
Television replays are inconclusive and don’t show that it was any more than that, despite the huge amount of social media posts saying it was.
The same goes for another incident his brother David was on the receiving end of, ‘which doesn’t look good,’ but can anyone definitively say what it is from replays?
We all have a fair idea, but that’s no good to the GAA or anyone else who would look to initiate disciplinary action, and unless we hear it from either of the players involved it will remain in the ether.
When Paudie Clifford went up to collect the cup, it was barely seconds after all hell had broken loose following a madcap game which featured six red cards.
There was also tension after the final whistle.
Less than 10 minutes earlier Clifford had been caught with a bad high elbow tackle, which left him bloodied and having to go off the pitch temporarily, and resulted in a red card for Anton Coyle.
He was still feeling his lip as he prepared to make his speech so it won’t come as a surprise that he was a little sore about his own dismissal.
If he was a little flustered too, maybe it was understandable.
He felt aggrieved at being sent off and he is entitled to an opinion on the decision.
Of course, referees - like the rest of us - are not infallible and few pretend to be.
But who are the arbitrators of what should and shouldn’t be said in a captain’s winning speech? There is nothing in the official guide about it and nor should there be.
How many times have we heard captain’s go up and praise referees.
It’s easy to do that when you win, whether you mean it or not.
When players fudge questions, people give out about them, and when they call it as they see it - guess what, people still give out about them.
Where has all this new found respect for the referee suddenly come from?
It’s all a little rich and stinks of hypocrisy.
You can be sure that plenty of those lambasting Paudie Clifford for his speech would be among the first to verbally abuse referees themselves.
The bigger issue here is the impossible job referees have.
That’s one thing Clifford perhaps should have been more cognisant of, particularly in a final when the stakes are so high.
Players don’t tend to think like that after a high octane game where the hits are going in.
If Clifford is censored by the GAA for offering an opinion on one decision - regardless of whether he said it in an interview after the game or in a captain’s address - then what about freedom of speech?
He didn’t lambast the referee’s performance.
It was far from a sweeping condemnation. He referred to a specific incident he felt aggrieved by.
The idea that this adds to the general lack of respect towards referees is tenuous enough too.
It’s a tiny drop in the ocean compared to assaults, verbal abuse and the general treatment referees face up and down the country, day in, day out.
The initial reaction of most people when they heard Clifford’s comment was to laugh.
Maybe this should be the barometer.
It was clearly said in the heat of the moment.
In the context of what unfolded in the game, and what was on the line, it is hardly that big a deal.
We’ve rarely heard something like this before in a captain’s speech, and it will probably be a long time before we hear something like it again.
It was all harmless enough. There really is very little to see here.
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