Kerry legend explains why refs should ignore the laws in certain moments

Interesting....

There were a number of flashpoints throughout the game, most notably at the half-time hooter, when David Clifford tussled with a number of rival players, while Micháel Burns drew blood from Ryan McHugh with a nasty punch.

This led to backroom staff entering the fray - and the biggest talking point of the game - with manager Jim McGuinness pushing Kerry's Diarmuid O'Connor.

An incident earlier in the first half also saw Clifford fortunate not to receive a card after appearing to elbow Caolan McGonagle in the face.

While Hurson had dish out a red card to Burns, and found it necessary to speak to both McGuinness and Kingdom boss Jack O'Connor after the half-time melee, he took a relative laissez faire approach to such a heated encounter.

In his Irish Times column, Ó Sé praised this approach, and felt that it began before the game had even kicked off.

He wrote: "I was watching Sean Hurson just before throw-in last Saturday and I thought he handled the whole thing very well. There were four or five wrestling matches going on..... I’d say a ref that was less sure of himself might think he had to go around showing cards and laying down the law.

"He knows that by the letter of the law, he should do something. But he has no back-up..... He handled it by not handling it. It was probably the right choice.

"A referee has to be his own man."