Monaghan screwed over by the same rule everyone in the GAA is ignoring

Conan Doherty

Watch for it, it happens in most games.

But this game wasn’t like most games. This was Monaghan on the brink of an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time in three decades. And, still, they’re being let down by ignorance of a very, very basic playing rule.

Listen up: a player in possession of a ball is allowed to strike the ball if he falls or is knocked over and the ball drops from his hand. He’s allowed to bat it away – on the ground – with a palm or a fist and he’s allowed to score from that same move too.

But, time and time again, referees and too many people well-versed in everything else to do with the GAA are unaware of this rule and players get punished for doing something they’re allowed to do.

Damien Comer did it on Sunday and, whilst the referee correctly let him away with it, the analysis suggested he did something illegal.

CC:
– Kildare players
– Darragh Maloney
– Colm O'Rourke
👀https://t.co/3mihXaA60E

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 22, 2018

The sense of injustice, however, must be bloody rife in Monaghan this evening. Not only did they draw a game they completely dominated, not only were they undone with just 100 seconds remaining and three points between the sides, they were let down by Maurice Deegan too who handed possession back to Kerry to launch that very same, fateful attack.

The Farney captain, Colin Walsh, was on the ball in the Kingdom half when he slipped by the sideline but showed some quick thinking to get out of danger and to do so legally.

The referee didn’t see it that way though.

Walsh falls and drops the ball.

He comes under pressure from a Kerry back.

So he reacts by striking the ball out into space.

Owen Duffy was wise to it and he ran on to collect possession but Maurie Deegan blew for a foul and signalled an off-the-ground infringement.

Just like many referees before, just like fans and experts alike, Deegan was just being ignorant of one of the very first rules in the GAA handbook which indicates that a player in Walsh’s position is well within his rights to strike the ball on the ground if he drops it and falls over.

RULE 1: THE PLAY

1.2 When the ball is on the ground, it may be played by any part of the body except the hand(s). It may be lifted off the ground with the feet.

Exceptions

(i) The goalkeeper may play the ball on the ground with his hand(s) inside his own small rectangle.

(ii) Any player who falls or is knocked to the ground while in possession of the ball may fist or palm the ball away on the ground, and may score by so doing.

(iii) The ball may not be lifted off the ground with the knees.

It happened once before that incident too in the Kerry-Monaghan clash and it was highlighted in the game before as something the referee missed.

Ultimately, Malachy O’Rourke’s side could lose out in a place in the last four because of it. Kerry went straight down the field and scored the goal that drew the game.