Eamonn Fitzmaurice: Refs need to get card happy to deal with diving

Former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice has said that the yellow card is a weapon that must be readily utilisied to clamp down on diving in football.

The RTÉ Sport analyst was reacting to a number of high-profile incidents over the opening weeks of the Allianz Football League where players were accused of exaggerating impacts from opposing players, with Galway captain Seán Kelly and Roscommon attacker Conor Cox attracting the ire of opposing fans at the weekend.

Rule 5.4 of the GAA rulebook says that yellow card can be awarded for any "attempt to achieve an advantage by feigning a foul or injury" - and speaking to the RTÉ GAA Podcast, Fitzmaurice said that he hopes referees take full advantage of that power.

"Last year in fairness to David Gough, the game above in the Athletic Grounds between Armagh and Tyrone; the scenes were almost a bit farcical on the day but we had very few melees after that last year because the referee implemented the rules strictly.

"It kind of stamped it out for the most part. I know there was argy-bargy above in Donegal [against Armagh], maybe the one in Croke Park [Galway v Armagh] but it wasn't as prevalent maybe as it had become.

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"Maybe it’s going to take that, it’s going to take players getting yellow cards or if a fella’s on a yellow card already and he gets the road for diving, it’ll fairly stamp it out pretty fast."

Fitzmaurice believes that players need to start showing a bit more respect for their opponents and ignore the temptation to do