Referee chief Pat McEnaney admits there is plenty of room for improvement when it comes to punishing footballers for deliberate pull-downs.

Speaking to the Examiner, McEnaney highlighted the case of Tipperary's Brian Fox who escaped a black card during their All-Ireland SFC qualifier defeat to Galway in Tullamore.

"I think we as a group have to hold our hands up on the deliberate pull-down. There have been a number of deliberate pull-downs that we have missed in this year's Championship, and we can get better at it.

"We missed one, for example, in the Galway-Tipperary game, but I think it's been a bit synonymous with the Championship.

"We're not as good as we are with the body checking, and that goes back right to the start of the summer. We need to get more consistent on them."

The Monaghan man refutes the suggestion that referees are more reluctant to use the black card during the latter stages of the championship.

"The truth is the best teams with good discipline generally come out on top. If you come into a quarter-final or a semi-final, you need to keep your 15 players on the pitch.

"I can't think of many red cards we've missed. There was a red card in the Munster final (John Hayes) and Cormac Reilly dealt with it. The only ones we have been missing are black cards."

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