Wall being held to a 'different standard'

Former Donegal footballer Nadine Doherty feels Meath's two-time All-Ireland winner Vikki Wall is held to a "different standard" to her peers when it comes to refereeing decisions.

Speaking to RTÉ's Game On, Doherty highlighted Wall's sin-binning in Meath's 0-07 to 0-04 win over Kildare and felt the decision was harsh on the 27-year-old, with the yellow card incurred in the 44th minute when she was adjudged to have fouled Claire Sullivan.

"The biggest talking point in that game was Vikki Wall's sin-bin. It wasn't a sin-bin for me," said Doherty.

"I just felt that Vikki had the ball, she was at full pace which is a lot of pace but that's her strength, so she can't be punished for that.

"And the Kildare player came across her, very clearly put two hands up to Vikki's chest. Vikki saw this late, turned her shoulder to protect herself as you would and straight away I knew she'd get a sin-bin, and you could see she was dumbfounded, as was everybody."

Doherty feels that has not been an isolated occurrence and feels the player has been incurring more on-field punishment than has been warranted by the way she plays the game.

"It just angers me to be honest because she's one of our top players," she said.

"Look, Vikki is attritional, she has a lot of pace. Does she commit fouls? Of course she does.

"But I just feel she's held to a higher standard. Not even a higher standard but a different standard when it comes to the majority of referees in this country.

Vikki Wall pleading her case to the referee after being sin-binned

"I just think she's one of our top players, who has come home from AFL. She could easily have stayed out there (in Australia) for a year.

"She has come home, back into that Meath team, she's upping the standard of our game and I just don't understand how week after week these calls are made against her."

While she viewed Wall's sin-binning as "simply a bad call", Doherty did distinguish that from the wider issue of the charging rule in women's football.

"I just think the charge rule is outdated. I don't know why it's in our game. Is it to keep our game and I put this in inverted commas, a 'non-contact sport' game?

"The game isn't non-contact. It's full-contact, it's a physical game. I don't see the point of (the charge rule) because it actually puts refs in positions where sometimes I feel they don't actually know what the right call is. They might argue that.

"Because it's such split-second tackles, it's all in the moment. But I just think at the weekend that Vikki was punished and shouldn't have been and I just think over the last few years, she's held to a different standard in that regard.

"And teams also play into that. You can see it. When Vikki has the ball and she's at full tilt, teams play into it and sometimes that's the only way they can stop her is to draw a charge."

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