John McEntee believes David Gough was left with no option but to send Jonny Cooper off during Sunday’s drawn All-Ireland final.

The Dublin full back picked up his second yellow card for pulling David Clifford’s arm shortly before the break. While Joe Brolly and Ciaran Whelan argued in the RTE studio at half time that the punishment was harsh, McEntee says their analysis was “daft” and reckons the referee got it spot on:

“What was unclear about Cooper’s second yellow card?” the former Crossmaglen and Armagh ace asks in his The Irish News column.

“When they repeatedly looked at replays of Cooper being beaten to the ball and, instead of reacting with his feet to David Clifford’s change of direction, wrapping both arms around Clifford’s right forearm before diving forward, hauling Clifford to the floor, could they not see that Cooper’s actions were: 1) deliberate; 2) against the rules of the game; 3) worthy of punishment?

“Perhaps David Gough should have issued a black card rather than a second yellow but the outcome would have been the same.

“Jonny Cooper has gotten away with living on the edge for too long. He is a tough defender, one of the best corner backs of the past 20 years, who merges the dark arts of defending with a mastery of buying soft frees from referees, usually the speciality of cunning forwards. This time he gambled and he lost.”

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