The officials are at it again. Last night in the Munster under 21 final they had to be escorted off the pitch after a ridiculous decision handed Tipperary the win. Deep in injury time Clare were awarded a close in free around the 21 which would probably have given them the win, but then the referee spotted one of his umpires at the other end, back he went and the umpire tells him the keeper stepped outside the small box when taking his puck out, referee then calls back the free and instead gives Tipp a 65, Pa Bourke points it for them and they win. Cue chaos as Clare fans go nuts and storm onto the pitch, ref and officials get a garda escort off and some of the fans have a sit down protest!
Unreal - where in the world would you get it except a GAA match in Ireland. The TV replays showed the keeper had put one foot outside the square - come on, ONE FOOT!, what was the umpire on? was he deliberately biased towards Tipperary? Still it is the letter of the law and the law says for that transgression a 65 is awarded so the ref followed the instructions.
Thing is though, watch any game of hurling over the rest of the year and look how many times keepers have a foot outside the square and how often it get’s penalised. Lots and never.
It’s a completely unsatisfactory way to end a game, particularly a final. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon, all round the country every weekend there’s probably a few games that are decided by a point that was or wasn’t or a debatable free. Hard to deal with really, the referees do the best they can in a thankless job and it’s the nature of a high scoring sport to have contentious endings.
Related Posts
Cork draw first blood, win Munster Under 21
2009 Hurling Championship Draw
Weekend Results - June 16/17
Loading ...
Write a comment