Brian Gavin: Dubs' defeat of Limerick took a lot of refereeing

Liam Gordon put himself in pole position for the All-Ireland final by doing an excellent job.

NOT HAPPY: Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin in conversation with referee Liam Gordon at half-time of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

As a referee, if you had the choice of All-Ireland quarter-final on Saturday, you would probably have picked Dublin-Limerick. It was all set up to be the handier to officiate of the two games.

Quarter-final referees are often in the shake-up for the final. The last three final referees – Johnny Murphy, John Keenan and Colm Lyons – were on quarter-final duty weeks beforehand. In the past 16 years only Fergal Horgan in 2020 and ’21 and James Owens in ’18 have done both a semi-final and final.