I’m down in Mayo for a very brief visit and when we made a pit stop in Ballyhaunis yesterday afternoon, you couldn’t help but notice all the red and black flags festooned around the town. While these colours are more readily associated with Down, they’re also those of Ballyhaunis and the reason they were flying was because yesterday afternoon the town’s hurlers were taking part in the senior county final.
The flags won’t be coming down in any hurry either as the Red and Black had it pretty much all their own way at McHale Park yesterday, where they beat Westport by 1-19 to 1-6 to claim the TJ Tyrell Cup for the fourth year in a row, their eighth title in all. The west Mayo lads, managed by former county bainisteoir Martin Brennan, had caused an upset at the semi-final stage when they edged out Tooreen by a single point but it looks as if yesterday’s decider was a step too far for them.
In the Minor A Hurling final, which was also played yesterday, Tooreen beat Castlebar by 1-12 to 0-9.
This just bubbled into my mind. By the way in raising it I am taking nothing away from Dublin.
Cast your mind back to the Connacht final. Cillian O Conner is about to take a free kick in a storm. There is most of the second half ahead of him and his county is four points down.
The referee deems he is time wasting and throws up the ball. RTE timed the incident or TV3 or whoever. The next free by the Roscommon man took longer but no hop ball. Now O Connor had nothing to gain by time wasting and to me he appeared well within the norm for such matters.
Fast forward to the last seconds of the recent all Ireland final. Cluxton jogged the length of the pitch at a nice ambling pace. Kerry were being denied time at the very death. So how come McQuillan didnt follow Collins’s example and throw up the ball for time wasting.
Now Dublin deserved to win, Cluxton is a good egg and all of that. That is not my point. My point is the fair application of the rules across the board and for every team. I leave one question. Would the Connacht final referee take the ball of Cluxton last Sunday and throw it up? Your answer will show exactly whats thought of the Mayo’s of this world.
PS How many times has anyone seen a ball thrown up for time wasting? ….apart from a Mayo man allegedly doing it.
The truth ontheroad is that Joe McQuillan did everything he could do help Dublin across the winning line.
He has been criticised here by Willie Joe on a constant basis – and I am sure his poor performance which has been pointed out by many commentators including former Dub Tommy Carr, will have come as no suprise to Willie Joe and those who read this brilliant blog.
TV3 showed that Donie Shine spent more time over his frees in the same Connacht Final.
However its unfair to singe out Cluxton, I dont think he spent any longer on his frees/45s as our Hennelly did, especially in the Galway game.
I don’t think it’s true that Joe McQuillan did everything he could to help Dublin win the last day, just as it wasn’t true that he did everything to ensure that Meath beat us in 2009. It’s just he’s a poor ref and has a track record of reffing matches poorly and the fact that he made it to an All-Ireland final shows how seriously the GAA takes refereeing standards. Some of his decisions in the final benefited Dublin, some Kerry though he obviously should have allowed more time after Cluxton’s winner. Over the seventy minutes, though, I still think the Dubs were deserving winners … and I wouldn’t have got to hold the Sam – which I did yesterday morning – if the Kerrymen had won it!
The incident involving Cillian is baffling, though, perhaps all the more so for me as I wasn’t there to see it. I don’t ever recall another example in a championship game where a player got pulled up for taking too long over a free. Can anyone else think of a single other case where this has occurred?
I’m sure there may have been instances of time-wasting resulting in hop-balls, I can’t recall any off-hand though..the real question is why would a player 4 points down in a provincial final waste time?! Fair play to Cillian, he stuck at it and kicked some excellent frees afterwards.
I actually thought Cluxton didn’t deliberate at all in the final, though common sense shoould have dictated more time to be added on for a keeper running up the pitch.
Folks lets get this right.
(A) Dublin deserved to win (B) I am not singling out Cluxton. (C) I am singling out a curious interpretation of a rule that cost us a point. Common sense suggests that (a) the authorities should have then insisted every other ref after Collins should have done the same thing or (b) told Mayo why they were arbitrarily punished. Cluxton did nothing wrong but neither did O Connor hence my argument , by the way which I know wont make a blind bit of difference.
In fairness to McQuillan he did play 20 seconds over the 2 minutes injury time. At all stages of games frees, medical treatment, kick-outs etc eat into the time and the time the ball is in play is quite minimal. There was a certain length of time that would be taken up regardless.
Now where McQuillan would have questions to answer by an Assessor would be as to why he missed the overcarrying for the Dublin goal, was the last free actually a free (I think not), and the 3 13 yard frees that were pointed out on the Sunday Game, given to Dublin all as being questionable. In a 1 point game those decisions are crucial. There were bad calls given against Dublin but they did not lead directly to scores.
Dublin were the better team though throughout regardless but McQuillan is a bad ref as Willie Joe has continuously pointed out. It has worked against us – where we were denied the equivalent of 2.1 against Meath even though they were the better team. It has worked for us – against Cork in the under 21 Final where we were awarded a soft penalty and Cork had a back sent off in questionable circumstances that helped us on our way. And of course he was an umpire he in the Down/Kildare semi-final last year where Kildare were “done” by a square ball goal.
The man is not fit to be handed the whistle.
And that’s the bottom because Stone Cold says so!
some good points made here alright , cillian being penalised was ridiculously harsh and more importantly it was inconsistent , it is these inconsistencies that need to be stamped out of refereeing , unless , as in mcquillans case the consistency involves being consitently useless!
No comments at all on the actual club hurling final here. Had no idea about hurling myself until my two young lads started playing it here in Dublin. I must say I am getting a lot more interested in it. One of the lads did not leave the hurley down all sumer and did not look at a gaelic football. I wonder will it ever get any more popular in Mayo. If I was ever to move back to the green and red sod, I would definitely get them involved in Hurling somewhere in the county.
Sure your lad must play hurling with St Vincents Willie Joe. What do you think of it ?
As a proud ballyhaunis man i am delighted for the lads but we have inter semi final next week and this is the big one. Cmon the haunis
He does, facetheball, but it’s with the U7s so it’s not hurling as you’d recognise it. He likes it but would prefer the football. The girls have been playing camogie for a while too, one of them likes it but the other doesn’t.
As the name suggests have been exiled down in east cork for the last 12 odd years (yes they have been odd years 😉
Well, much like Galway, Cork is divided into the hurling strongholds (the East) and football (the West), so where I live a gaelic football is a rare thing. My youngsters live and breath hurling and are always banging the ball against something. Now growing up I was mad about football but I dont remember me or any of my peers spending as much time kicking a ball as my young lads do pucking around. And before you think I’m trying to tell ye that we have some budding Sean Og’s on our hands because of their obsession, they are not unusual locally, this would be the norm. It strikes me that hurling is just a more enjoyable game to play and that for those that play it that fact means they cant help loving it. I cant help thinking that they secretly pity though of us who dont know what its like to play it or have that love for it. I think it would be great if we managed to make strides in the hurling, very difficult to be good at both of course with a relatively small population, but Tipp are almost there, if they can do it so can we.