A nice summation of the Offaly Tipp Minor game from a regional Offaly journo that ties in with the deal you strike when you have referees who let the game flow
——-
The final free in has been debated fiercely in Offaly. It was a free in but just before that Niall Furlong went down as he tried to gather a loose ball. It looked a free out all day long and that incident in particular resulted in referee Shane Hynes coming in for ferocious criticism from Offaly supporters, not to mention observers from far outside the county boundaries. Having looked at the incident several times since, it is not as clearcut as it looked on first viewing but there was contact by the Tipperary player, it wasn’t shoulder to shoulder, it was with the hip and leg and it should have been a free out. If the free out had been given, not one Tipperary person would have complained and it was a huge moment in the game, even if the contact was quite minimal.
It is the type of incident that happens a dozen time in every hurling game. Some times a free is given but many times it isn’t. That is the way hurling is refereed by most officials and it is the way hurling people want it. They want play to be allowed run, rucks to develop, physicality to be allowed, they don’t want every free given. I don’t know when I was last at a hurling game that there weren’t at least ten clear frees not given, and that is being charitable.
The way hurling is refereed does add to its attraction, the entertainment it provides and Offaly were a victim of that on Sunday
Same lad had the ear piece in with the hoodie down when Stack moved over in second half. Every team is at that though and probably should be allowed to anyway
Limerick will adjust and get on with it whoever refs it. It’s the same for both teams ffs. Cody and the kilkenny lads will probably whinge that such and such an appointment “wouldn’t suit” them, whatever that is supposed to mean.
whilst I’d somewhat agree with that, and also the fact that you control what you can and Offaly were a man up and leading, a free like that at that stage of the game is far, far more critical and influential than one in the first minute. An error early on gives you an entire game to get over it and play through, that free literally decided the game at that juncture.
He also gave a free to Tipp before that for some reason that no one can decipher either. There didnt seem to be any contact and the Tipp player was chasing after a ball, but he called it back and gave them a free in. It was unfortunate on Offaly to lose in this manner, its also disappointing on the Tipp players who had nothing to do with his decisions and just fought hard to claw their way back in and some are trying to tarnish their win. Its massively unfortunate on the ref, but he made his own bed in all this.
I don’t know if it the traditional Kilkenny pre All Ireland Final media briefing is a lunch or early evening event, but they give the journalists a 3-course meal in Langton’s. Some of you may have seen journalists having the bantz on Twitter about the menu options versus prior years.
Lads, Cody is an ould fella. He wants to be in enclosed spaces with other people as little as possible between now and Sunday week.
If they had to go indoors it would have looked like one of Putin’s meetings with his generals.
