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Wexford Youths' Kylie Murphy lifts the FAI Continental Tyres Women’s Cup. Ryan Byrne/INPHO

Women's FAI Cup final penalty shootout fiasco was utterly avoidable

There were farcical scenes at the climax of Sunday’s game at the Aviva Stadium.

IRISH INTERNATIONAL LOUISE Quinn summed up the general mood on Twitter yesterday afternoon when she said on the site: “Shameful that the great game was marred by the mens (sic) teams warming up on the pitch before penos were taken #norespect.”

There was widespread anger after Cork City men’s players chose to warm-up on the Aviva Stadium pitch amid the culmination of a thrilling FAI Women’s Cup final.

The ensuing scenes were surreal and embarrassing in equal measure, as a tense finale to an excellent game of football was undermined by the distracting presence of players warming up in one half, while the penalties were taking place down the other end.

RTÉ commentator Ger Canning called it “disrespectful” and many others agreed, with the spectacle undoubtedly affected as a result of this issue.

As many have pointed out, a reverse of this scenario if the Shelbourne-Wexford Youths match had happened to take place after the men’s encounter would be unthinkable. So for people to assume that the opposite situation was somehow tolerable sums up the unfortunate, patronising attitudes that continue to hamper the women’s game in this country.

The Cork players received plenty of criticism for their actions, but the organisers of the event — RTÉ, the FAI and Aviva all have a say (as pointed out by The42′s resident League of Ireland columnist John O’Sullivan) — were the primary culprits.

The fact that extra-time and penalties ensured the women’s game ran over time, coupled with the 3.30pm kick-off for the men’s match, meant that the players were left with limited time to perform their pre-match warm-up.

Sacrificing 5-10 minutes of pre-match preparation may seem like a small sacrifice for the greater good, but many top athletes would hardly see it that way. As unusual as it may seem to the average punter, those 5-10 minutes will be considered invaluable from the players’ perspective. Cork would not have wanted to give Dundalk even the slightest advantage going into yesterday’s game and thus felt obliged to do as instructed and engage in their warm-up.

The blame for the incident should therefore lie primarily at the organisers’ door. Many assumed that they had simply not anticipated that penalties would transpire, and therefore made a panicked decision to allow the Cork players onto the field of play.

However, Lisa Fallon – a Performance/Opposition Analyst with Cork City – tweeted an image which suggested organisers had planned for the warm-ups to coincide with a potential penalty shoot-out — a revelation that exacerbates an already farcical decision.

The one question that remains is whether the footballers involved are entirely blameless. Could they have waited an extra few minutes? Should they have refused to warm-up in solidarity with their female counterparts, or demanded a delay to the kick-off? Games starting slightly later than scheduled is commonplace in GAA, therefore why should soccer be different?

Such stances would have been admirable, but in the players’ defence, it was a heat-of-the-moment situation, and footballers have to be selfish sometimes, so the women’s match was likely the last thing on most of the Cork side’s minds as they got ready for one of the biggest games of their careers.

And looking at it from a different perspective, the men’s footballers might also legitimately ask why they should be the ones to suffer from administrative incompetence.

Many people within the game have worked incredibly hard to promote women’s football in Ireland, not to mention the players themselves who are being rewarded for a long, hard campaign, so it’s disappointing that yesterday’s incident tarnished the season’s showpiece event slightly and undermined the progress that has been made to a degree.

The FAI and other decison-makers involved owe it to those tireless champions of the sport at grassroots level to ensure that Sunday’s scenes are not repeated and the women’s game gets the respect it deserves in future.

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    Mute Umpaloompa
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    Nov 29th 2020, 6:28 PM

    A head coach who’s never been involved with a heads up style team decides this is how he’s going to play…
    All the talk of happy at training seems to have caused us to lose our aggression.
    A new coach who rewarded form over reputation would have got us off to a good start or at least set us on a path that we can build on.
    Farrell and co are out of their depth. It’s going to be mid table mediocre for the future

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    Mute PScald
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    Nov 29th 2020, 7:01 PM

    @Umpaloompa: with all due respect what a load of nonsense.. the guy is barely in the chair and having done what was least expected (beating Wales and Georgia losi g to England and France) we are calling for his head..
    For who? Scott Robertson? And what about the millions the IRFU would have to spend to buy out current coaching contracts in the middle of a government bailout?.. Get up the yard and give it time

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    Mute Umpaloompa
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    Nov 29th 2020, 7:43 PM

    @PScald: Yeah I know it won’t happen because it would cost a fortune and the IRFU only have their self to blame. Do you think any top club would go for him if we did get rid of him?
    He claims to be implementing a heads up style yet we now have Joe’s style less the skill level and execution. I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel

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    Mute Chris Mc
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    Nov 29th 2020, 8:38 PM

    @PScald: might as well wait another 2 years to do what plain and simply obvious.

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    Mute Rudiger McMonihan
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    Nov 29th 2020, 9:07 PM

    @PScald: it’s not simply a win or loss it’s the manner in which those results happened. The style of play is abysmal. They crash the ball up every time. It’s so predictable that a team with a bunch of semi pro players could stop it. He also picked 8 players in his 23 that were over 30 years old against Georgia. What benefit did the likes of Earls and Healy get from playing in that game?

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    Mute PScald
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    Nov 29th 2020, 9:09 PM

    @Umpaloompa: 100% a top club would have him as head coach. Top test teams would have him as defense coach.. I’m not sure about Catt or Easterby but I have faith in Farrell being a success..
    Let’s be honest he’s dealing with playing his 3rd and 4th choice outhalf and trying to find an alternative to Murray.. today was sh1 t but they won. Next week will be a good test

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    Mute PScald
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    Nov 29th 2020, 9:09 PM

    @Chris Mc: what is plain and obvious?

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    Mute BMJF
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    Nov 29th 2020, 9:35 PM

    @Rudiger McMonihan: yeah 8 players over 30
    In a friendly joke of a tournament – this should have been the summer tour to USA and likes of Harry Byrne needed time

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    Mute PScald
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    Nov 29th 2020, 10:03 PM

    @Rudiger McMonihan: a team with a bunch of semi pro players didn’t stop it.. they lost…

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    Mute Connachtabu
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    Nov 29th 2020, 10:56 PM

    @BMJF: Harry Byrne! Seriously? He currently is unlikely to get in the starting 15 Leinster in a H cup match for 4-5 year and is no6 oH in the country after sexton, burns, carbery, his big bro and carty!
    Lovely to watch him in the last 20 for L in nothing Pro14 fixtures.
    Work in progress, I think.

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    Mute Daniel Murphy
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    Nov 29th 2020, 6:48 PM

    Time for Leo and Stuart, methinks!

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    Mute Stuart Quinn
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    Nov 29th 2020, 6:53 PM

    @Daniel Murphy: I’ll get my coat

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    Mute Chris Mc
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    Nov 29th 2020, 8:40 PM

    @Daniel Murphy: farrell and easterby are doing a great job.

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    Mute Luke O'Mahony
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    Nov 29th 2020, 6:37 PM

    tu rebus omnibus non est punctualis

    It should be the teams motto !!!

    Firefighting a different issue each week is ignoring the bigger problem. If you continue to play the same predictable way you’ll end up chasing your tail all the time

    Develop the pod attack to introduce alternatives not just the middle man single carries , the dummy runner they have introduced isn’t working either. Try a vertical pod or move the pods out to the centre , do something creative and different

    As for the backs , bring the wingers into the midfield , get the full back running hard lines into a switch play , and at least pass the ball to where the player is going instead of where he is .

    Be creative for once

    29
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    Mute Kingshu
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    Nov 29th 2020, 7:34 PM

    I wouldn’t call for a coachs head so quickly but the coaching team have made some basic errors. In the initial squad only having 2 LHs even as fans we could see that was a mistake, how can a professional coaching team make that error. McGrath or Eos should have been in from the start and playimg this game. Playing Bealham at LH? Did Farrell really think he was a better LH than McG or EoS? What was learned? Nothing we already didn’t know. It wasnt fair on Bealham either, how is he going to prove his worth at TH with that game? Playing him at TH and EoS would have taught us a lot more, could have given them both a chance to move up the pecking order. If he wants a player in the squad that can cover TH and LH then play Porter there, as Bealham may not make a squad.

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    Mute BMJF
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    Nov 29th 2020, 9:33 PM

    Ah sorry but I’d have respect for Ryan if he called as it was – ‘ that was total muck, totally unacceptable.. we need to take a hard look at what we’re about.. we can’t fix this in one game but we’ve got to improve next week” is what should have been said!! Sick of this small issues we can easily fix waffle

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    Mute Agrippa
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    Nov 29th 2020, 10:18 PM

    Don’t know why but think i would prefer Ryan to concentrate on his own game which is normally top class rather than be burdened by the captaincy at this relatively early stage in his senior career

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