GAA to examine Brian Cody criticism of referee Barry Kelly

Heavy criticism of both All-Ireland hurling final referees – Barry Kelly and Brian Gavin – is being examined by the CCCC, who are due to meet shortly to decide what action to take against Kilkenny manager Brian Cody.

Cody’s claim that Kelly’s decision to penalise Brian Hogan for charging into Pádraic Maher in the final stages of the drawn game, leading to a free which John O’Dwyer struck wide, as “criminal” is expected to be sanctioned.

There is an eight week minimum suspension that can be meted out for making comments about officials but the GAA have other options such as a match ban.

Cody stated: “At the end of the day [Tipperary] were handed an opportunity with the last puck of the game the last day in the wrong to win the game. They were handed an opportunity by a complete wrong decision. We didn’t speak about it the last day but it was criminal what was done the last day. And people can say that I am whingeing and moaning all they like but I am telling the truth here.

“If he had said ‘play on’ I would have said fair enough. I could say maybe it might have been a free for us, I wouldn’t worried about it. If the ball broke and they put it over the bar fair enough but you don’t hand a team a free puck and say ‘lads, there you go’. It was like that.”

Looser handling

No manager or player was particularly critical of Gavin’s looser handling of the replay although former Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack, during radio commentary, said: “I don’t rate Brian Gavin as a referee. You could say he’s been as bad for both teams but how that wasn’t a foul on Bonner Maher I don’t know. He’s neither fit enough to be a referee or he doesn’t have the technical skills to be a referee. It’s a terrible performance out of him.”

In contrast, former Tipperary manager Liam Sheehy defended Gavin’s style: “When you have two teams like Kilkenny and Tipperary going toe to toe you are going to get that physicality. Players are going to play on the edge, that’s where they want to play.”

"The inconsistency that is there between referees is extremely frustrating," Cusack added on The Sunday Game. "Barry Kelly refereed the drawn game in a totally different way to the way Gavin refereed [the replay]."

The head of referees, former football official Pat McEnaney, was unavailable for comment on this matter but Croke Park’s response is imminent.