Colm O'Rourke says that referee David Gough could have sent off more players in Sunday's Allianz League clash between Armagh and Tyrone.
The Orchard County beat the All-Ireland champions 2-14 to 0-14 to continue their excellent start to their league campaign following last week's victory over Dublin at Croke Park.
One of the big talking points to emerge from the game at the Athletic Grounds was a late melee which saw Gough send off five players - Tyrone's Michael McKernan, Padraig Hampsey, Peter Harte and Kieran McGeary, along with Armagh's Greg McCabe - after consultation with his umpires.
"I don't recall any game that I have ever seen where five red cards were given out at the one time," O'Rourke said on RTÉ's Allianz League Sunday.
"There is a rule in the book about contributing to a melee and, as far as I'm concerned, the referee was perfectly entitled to send off those [players].
"He could have even sent off more. The Tyrone crowd might be sore that he didn't send off more Armagh players because both sets of players were involved.
"For me, the melee is the most unsightly thing that's part of our game at the moment - pulling, dragging, gouging, scraping, elbowing, the odd fist here and there, throwing players on the ground; it's unsightly behaviour.
"We want the game physical; that's not physicality. The pulling and dragging is desperate stuff.
"Gough identified four players, he could have identified far more. If every other referee took a leaf from what David Gough did in the game then we would not have these sort of incidents happening at all.
"If referees took a firm hold of this, and sent players off, it would stop very quickly."
"He could have even sent off more"
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) February 6, 2022
Colm O'Rourke and Éamonn Fitzmaurice react to the five red cards - four of those shown to Tyrone players - that were meted out after the melee between Tyrone and Armagh: https://t.co/aHmcyk4jys #rtegaa #AllianzLeagueSunday pic.twitter.com/cFXvXauCMT
Speaking on the same programme, former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice echoed the views of his co-panelist.
"David Gough and his team of officials deserve a lot of credit," he said.
"They stood off, they observed, they stayed out of the way. The pictures are inconclusive - it was a melee. There is a rule there. Often when you see red cards there's striking, or more than that going on.
"They took their time and looked at it and they were quite happy to dish out the red cards. It was remarkable to see five reds in one incident.
"For such a decisive decision to be taken, it's probably only a positive. It'll only discourage players from getting involved in those things because often times it can be used tactically.
"Especially when a team is behind, it gets them going and into the game."
On what might happen next, Fitzmaurice said he's looking forward to seeing if either county appeals any of the cards.
"Tyrone are going to have to produce strong video evidence to prove their case, rather than the other way around."
