Comerfords bemoan ref ‘conspiracy’ against Cats
The O’Loughlin Gaels brothers launched a scathing attack on referee Barry Kelly for his “unbelievable” officiating of the All-Ireland quarter-final tie between Kilkenny and Cork.
Andy, who captained the county to Liam MacCarthy success in 2002, claimed it was blatant in Thurles that the Westmeath referee wanted Kilkenny rid from the championship.
“There was definitely a conspiracy, from somewhere anyway, to get Kilkenny beaten, in regards to decisions against the team and how the players were treated by referees,” he told GAAbanter.ie.
“Brian Cody didn’t say too much about it. He was very, very reserved in what he said about refereeing decisions.”
“[Decisions in the Cork game] looked very bad from the stand, the way some of the decisions went. When it was in the melting pot and we had to get a decision for the referee, it went against us and cost us a match.”
Andy also railed against Henry Shefflin’s first-half dismissal in the defeat, maintaining neither tackle, in particular the challenge on Daniel Kearney ten minutes in, warranted a card. The subsequent rescinding of the red card was proof positive the wrong decision had been made, he stressed.
“It was too obvious, from the stands, to see the decisions going against Kilkenny. It was too obvious to the media. It was too obvious to everyone.
“If it’s obvious to that amount of people, then there is obviously something going on; that referees have it in for Kilkenny this year. If some referees can live with that on their conscience then so be it. I know I wouldn’t be able to live with it on my conscience if I was a referee. Kilkenny came up against a referee that wanted them beaten.”
The GAA declined to comment on the allegations, yet younger brother Martin claimed there was a conspiracy against the county.
“The decisions he made were unbelievable,” he said.
“They had a bad, bad day with the referee. It didn’t look fair some of the decisions. One ball went wide and the umpires looked at each other, they didn’t see where the ball went and just waved the white flag. It looked like there was a conspiracy going on.”
Poor refereeing aside, Andy believes the hurlers expanded too much en-route to league success back in May. “I suppose for years there Kilkenny would focus a lot of attention on the league and this year it was absolutely detrimental to their championship chances. It has proved so in the last few matches as the team was banging up injuries and running out of petrol.
“After winning two All-Irelands, it is very, very difficult to keep it going and going and going.”
Both were unanimous Cody and Shefflin will return to the fold again next season and further All-Ireland success is not beyond the capabilities of the current crop: “There is another couple of years left in them,” remarked Martin.
