Cork GAA board blame referee for All-Ireland football exit

The Cork County GAA board have issued a statement thanking recently departed senior football manager Brian Cuthbert for his two years in charge and also blaming a poor refereeing decision for the side's failure to progress in this year's All Ireland Championship.

Cuthbert stepped down as manager last week following Cork’s 1-13 to 1-21 Round 4A Qualifier defeat to Kildare .

The qualifier had come a week after the Rebel County’s Munster final replay defeat to Kerry, with many citing the quick turnaround as a major factor in their defeat.

Kerry had managed to force a Munster final replay thanks to a Fionn Fitzgerald point right at the death, but the Cork board have suggested it was a decision made by Armagh referee Padraig Hughes which cost them a place in the quarter finals.

The statement reads: “The Executive of Cork County Board would like to express its sincere thanks to Brian Cuthbert for his two years at the helm of the Cork Senior Football team.

“Brian made great strides with a largely new-look team playing excellent football, and steered them through two successful Allianz League campaigns which saw them top the league in both years, reaching the semi-final in 2014 and the final in 2015. The 2015 campaign was particularly arduous given that it involved an unprecedented four trips to play Ulster teams away.

“The tremendous performance of the team in the drawn Munster Final has been widely acknowledged, and it is quite probable that but for a totally wrong refereeing decision in that game, Cork would now be in an All-Ireland Semi-Final.

“The short turn-around time between the replay, played in exhausting weather conditions, and the qualifier game against Kildare, cannot be ignored as a factor in that defeat.”