Colm McFadden's goal yesterday should have been disallowed. It didn't matter anyway, but he was about 7 or 8 yards from Michael Murphy when the ball was passed from the free kick - not even close to 13.
I know what you mean here. Its almost an unwritten advantage rule where refs say "ok you were sort of fouled there but you sort of fouled the ball too so we'll call it evens"
That's it exactly. It's ridiculous. And what generally happens is that the guy with the ball either scores or the defender in frustration ends up fouling him. It'd be very interesting to see how good Tommy Walsh, Henry Shefflin, Colm Cooper or Sean Cavanagh were if they were stopped from taking 8 steps. As a defender, one of the best ways to cleanly dispossess a player without fouling is to confuse him or keep him off balance so he takes more than 4 steps. Referees have taken this away from the game, and it's not right. Drives me crazy.