Ken Carter [Samuel L Jackson] What's wrong with you? What's wrong with all of you? Since when is winning not enough? Since when is playing hard not enough? No, you have to humiliate your opponent. Taunt him after every score. What gives you the right to act like punks? What gives you the right to taint the game that I love with trash talk and taunting?

Player Coach, they were jawing too.

Carter So? You can't show some class? Act like a champion? You owe me 200 push-ups apiece, all of you.

From Coach Carter (2005)

With three minutes of normal time remaining last Sunday, John Miskella drove through the heart of the Kerry defence and launched a shot towards Hill 16. At the time it seemed nothing more than a consolation score, reducing Kerry's advantage from eight points to seven. Television replays would clearly show it had sailed between the two uprights, yet television mics also picked up Diarmuid Murphy shouting towards the umpire to his left.

"Wide ball! Wide ball!" he protested, before truly emphasising the point, by motioning his arms outright while shouting "Wide!"

If it was untypical of Murphy, sadly it was typical of Kerry's behaviour last Sunday.

Five minutes before Murphy's attempt to deceive the umpire, Tomás Ó Sé had thundered into Noel O'Leary after O'Leary had released the ball. In rugby, Ó Sé's challenge would have resulted in an automatic sin bin, or in basketball, a flagrant foul and two free throws to the opposition. Ó Sé though was only shown a yellow card, a meaningless censure with the game in its closing minutes. The late hit had been worth it. He had got to stop the play, soften O'Leary, and stay on the field to kick Kerry's 12th point a minute later. It was a classic example of how this Kerry side has not so much mastered the game's dark arts but expertly exploited its grey areas.

For a player who normally personifies all that is good about Gaelic football, Colm Cooper's behaviour last week was disappointing. In the 33rd minute he won a free after Anthony Lynch was rightly whistled for holding. Within a split-second of Joe McQuillan awarding the free, Cooper threw his elbow back and floored Lynch. McQuillan saw Lynch's reaction, yet like Cooper himself, paid no heed, instead turning round to see where Cooper played the ball. It was a shameful disregard by both for the welfare of Lynch. Lynch had made an honest, but flawed, attempt to play the ball. There wasn't time for him to get his reaching hand away from Cooper's midsection between McQuillan awarding the free and Cooper elbowing him in the face.

Ten minutes into the second half, Cooper grounded John Miskella by cutting across the attacking half back and raising his arm around Miskella's neck. It was a lazy foul, bordering on the cynical, yet instead of creeping away with embarrassment, Cooper remained on the scene. Momentarily you thought he might offer his hand to help lift Miskella up but instead Miskella picked himself up only to find Cooper standing right in front of him. A frustrated Miskella duly shouldered Cooper to the ground who shrugged his own shoulders, gesturing his innocence, to the referee.

McQuillan acted decisively and correctly, showing Cooper a yellow card for his initial foul and penalising Miskella by overturning his free into a throw ball, but in a properly-officiated sport, Cooper would not have been allowed to stay in Miskella's vicinity and deny him the quick re-start and lure him into retaliation.

It's systematic. Kevin McMahon was dragged to the ground by Kieran Donaghy. Donaghy instantly stood in front of him to prevent the quick free. When McMahon then threw the ball laterally to Ger Spillane to take it, Donaghy's initial reaction was to turn to the referee and protest that the free had been taken from the wrong spot. Donaghy was constantly jawing and refereeing. Watch him again as John Hayes was lining up his penalty. Or his whereabouts during the Aidan O'Mahony-Donncha O'Connor incident.

Enough has already been said about O'Mahony's reaction to O'Connor's slap/strike, but the events preceding that clash are worth recounting. O'Mahony had brilliantly pressurised Ger Spillane into spilling the ball out over the sideline. O'Connor, who had been waiting inside that sideline for a potential pass, was heaved towards the advertising hoarding by Killian Young, who, to his credit, then turned his attention to picking up the ball and looking to restart the action. O'Mahony though dashed towards O'Connor, blocking him from re-entering the playing area. When O'Connor gave a shove to give himself some space, Donaghy, instead of looking for the pass from Young, ran in towards O'Connor and O'Mahony, who by now was roaring into O'Connor's face. Then, of course, O'Connor slapped his, prompting Donaghy to instinctively roar "Ref!" at the linesman.

What was O'Mahony doing taunting O'Connor? What was Donaghy doing near them? Why was winning not enough? Why was playing hard not enough? What gave them the right to taint the game we love?

It's the way they've been conditioned, of course. In Kerry and by those who have beaten Kerry.

Armagh brought so much good to Gaelic football but they also popularised tactical outfield fouling; feigning injury to stop the play after the opposition had scored; kneeing opponents sliding for the ball; fouling and then falling on top of their grounded opponents.

Tyrone have also been good for the game but no other team has been involved in such a high proportion of games where one of their players goes down clutching his face and an opponent is shown a red, or in the case of Michael McCarthy in 2003, a yellow card.

Kerry were right there when all those Armagh he-men would suddenly go down clutching their leg or head any time Kerry were building a bit of momentum; when Cooper was hauled to the ground by Peter Canavan in 2005; when McCarthy was booked after Canavan ran into him and flopped to the ground.

We in the media game are to blame too. Peter the Great jumps on the back of an Armagh man and is lucky not to be sent off just before he lifts Sam but we turn a blind eye because he lifts Sam. We condemn the Dubs when they model and exaggerate the antics of champions because the Dubs don't have Celtic Crosses like those champions, and we condone and ignore the antics of champions because they have those medals.

We cast aspersions about men like James Nallen for never having won an All Ireland when he has one with his club and has played for his country without ever being sent off in his own game. We keep churning out yarns and clichés about Micko and what a rogue he is, never stopping to point out how honest his teams are. John O'Mahony's Galway were the most sporting All Ireland champions of the past 15 years, but how often has he or they been lauded for that? His current Mayo team and Ross Carr's Down continue to faithfully uphold their counties' values and value in sportsmanship yet only get abuse for their 'naivety'.

Cork are another county who tend to play the game in the right spirit but they betrayed that tradition and the spirit of the game when they appealed Donncha O'Connor's suspension. Sure, he was being jawed, sure O'Mahony over-reacted, but so? Couldn't O'Connor have shown some class? Acted like a champion? Now the whole country is wondering if slapping an opponent only constitutes a yellow card.

Players have to accept the responsibilities as well as rights of being an elite player. During the week Brian Dooher said that while "nobody wants cheating of any sort", it was "up to the referees to deal with it". Again, blame it on officialdom. Sure if you can get away with it, why not try to get away with it? It's up to the ref to catch you. In that light, it was encouraging to hear Dessie Farrell during the week condemning the phenomenon of diving.

Farrell also pointed out the responsibility of officials, and he is right, but it's hard to have any faith in them. Tomás Ó Sé's hit on Noel O'Leary was considerably more cynical than Collie Moran's challenge on Dermot Bannon, but the alphabet gang lost all stomach for upgrading yellow-card incidents when Moran's suspension was overturned by the DRA. It's one thing choosing your battles (Moran was always an unwise one), but quite another hiding from them.

During the week Nickey Brennan claimed, "Last year we had the issue of players goading each other and we brought in a rule to stop that. It hasn't happened since." How does he think the O'Connor-O'Mahony incident blew up in the first place?

The GAA is run by a crowd of Rip Van Winkles. They don't see how the game has changed, that it pays to cheat, that teams are deliberately fouling out the field; feigning injury to kill the game; tugging at an opponent after giving away a free because it's worth it.

There are proposals for Special Congress in October that a foul like Ó Sé's on O'Leary will result in Ó Sé having to leave the field and be replaced by someone else, but as welcome as that may be, it shows how the authorities still solely depend on the card system to dish out punishment. Look to a fellow high-scoring sport like basketball where a serious unsporting foul would also be punished by a scorable free-in, regardless of where it was committed. Why does a free in football have to be taken in the exact spot the foul was committed? Because that's how it works in soccer?!

All studies on indiscipline in sport show that it mostly stems from frustration, and that there are cues or causes for such aggression. In football, there are too many people around the ball when a free is awarded, looking to delay the free, goad the freetaker. Let the freetaker take the free anywhere within five metres of where the foul was committed and everybody else has to immediately clear out and stay at least 10 metres away from where that free is taken, otherwise they'll be punished by a 20-metre free in. The GAA lacks that imagination. We even doubt whether it has the will. They'll hand the rules over to Frank for him to exploit some other time down the line for Cork. The game we love deserves better, but right now we're getting the game and champions we deserve.

kshannon@tribune.ie