Doesn’t look like John Small meant to box Laois player across the face

It didn't look good at the time for John Small.

The Dublin defender was issued with a straight red card shortly after his introduction to the field in Dublin's Leinster final victory over Laois. That straight red card looks set to keep him out of Dublin's first match in the Super 8s. After being introduced from the bench, Small is excused for being a bit overeager. After all, he's trying to get himself back in the team ahead of the important games of Dublin's season. He may have been a tad overzealous in this particular tackle, but it didn't look as if there were malicious intentions in the incident that led to his dismissal. The first replays played back on television after his dismissal didn't do him any favours. At first glance it looked like the Ballymun Kickhams defender was after catching Laois forward Evan O'Carroll square across the chin, and it looked like he had done so intentionally. After watching the replay once or twice, many of us had focused on something else and we'd deemed John Small guilty of the crime. An extra replay was shown of the incident on The Sunday Game and it showed that unless Small is some sort of trigonometry expert, his target wasn't actually the Laois man's chin and that it was in fact, to knock the ball out of his hands. You can have judge for yourself from the following screenshots, but it's 100% clear that Small hit the ball first in an attempt to dispossess the Laois man. His fist hits the ball and then bounces off it in the direction of O'Carroll's face. Small's eyes are on the ball at all times leading up to the impact, not the man. His hand is outstretched towards the ball, not the man. His eyes are still on the ball only. Seeing as he kneeling down towards the Laois man, it's only logical that his outstretched arm lifts back up towards the sky after impact. He then catches O'Carroll. His reaction to the sending off was that of a man who couldn't believe the bad luck that came his way, who felt as if the whole world didn't understand what had just happened in that incident.

Video Credit: RTÉ, The Sunday Game.

Jim Gavin stood up for his player after the game, and it appears he had good right to do so.