Brian Gavin: Was Colm Lyons correct to award last minute free to Galway?
Referee Colm Lyons leaves the pitch followed by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody after the Leinster SHC Round 3 match between Galway and Kilkenny at Pearse Stadium. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Two weeks after he was whistled for taking too long over a late free in Wexford, there might have been a sense of poetic justice about Conor Cooney sending over one to claim the two points in Salthill yesterday.
Was it a free? It was a 50-50 call for Colm Lyons but possibly only because of the stage in the game. Had it taken place in the first five or 10 minutes, there would have been no quibbles about it going Galway's way.
Over the last decade, Galway-Kilkenny games have featured one or two disputed frees at the end of games – think back to Jackie Tyrrell fouling Davy Glennon for Joe Canning to force the 2012 All-Ireland final replay. And just like Brian Cody was back then with Barry Kelly, he didn’t see too happy with Colm after the game.
You can see why Colm gave the free, though, and it was interesting that it came off a quick puck-out after Galway had conceded a goal and also brought forward by Colm. Cooney took as much time over the free as he did in Wexford but this time it wasn’t taken off him for running down the clock.
Colm had a solid game. He gave good advantage for Eoin Cody’s goal, pulled up Galway for too many steps when Conor Whelan had a goal opportunity and was right with the yellow cards for Éanna Murphy and Cody, the latter for persistent fouling. Pádraic Mannion tried to buy a couple of frees, holding onto his opponent’s hurl, and Colm was guilty of being suckered into giving him one.
In Thurles, there was a notable difference between the refereeing compared to Omagh later in the game. Robert Downey should be counting his lucky stars for his kick not being picked up whereas in the Tyrone-Derry game Brian Kennedy was dismissed for an attempted one.
Downey was yellow carded and Ian Galvin was shown a straight one and while Galvin’s punishment for striking to the stomach of his marker was right, Downey got off lightly. It’s the one major moment Paud O’Dwyer got wrong in a decent afternoon save for the performance of one of his umpires at the Town End.
After six minutes, the umpire raised the white flag when the ball had clearly sailed wide as was proven when HawkEye eventually highlighted it. Clare also scored a 65, which he shouldn’t have awarded them as it last came off the stick of Peter Duggan. And later his decision not to wave a shot wide prompted his colleague to reach the white flag, which caused all sorts of confusion.
He redeemed himself when he informed Paud about Mark Keane’s late strike on John Conlon and the Cork substitute was correctly sent to the line. Paud was otherwise strong, picking out a few overcarries and giving good advantages, but as I’ve written before an umpire can let the whole team down.
Conor Cleary picked up a yellow card and you can see the reason behind other bookings. Brian Lohan was also yellow carded late on for being outside his permitted area too many times. That’s not a rule most of the public know about and it’s a real pity that there is such a breakdown in communication on these matters from Croke Park.
The aforementioned kick by Kennedy in Omagh was a stupid move by the Tyrone midfielder and Conor McKenna could have no complaints either for picking up a second yellow when he threw the ball at an opponent.
Paddy Neilan was right not to show a black card when he awarded Derry their penalty as it was not a deliberate trip on Paul Cassidy and overall he could be happy with his performance after the difficulty in the suspensions from the Donegal-Armagh game not standing up to scrutiny.
In Wexford on Sunday, Dublin’s powerful performance made life easy for Barry Cassidy but he could make things so much easier for himself if he stopped trying to be so close to the action. He strikes me as a referee who doesn’t yet have the confidence to not do that and he will need to change for his own benefit.
