Monaghan gets ‘pleasant surprise’ with football final date

KILDARE referee Mick Monaghan, whose appointment as the referee for the Kerry-Tyrone Bank of Ireland football championship final on September 25 was announced yesterday, admitted that the news had come out of the blue for him.

"It was a very pleasant surprise. I feel honoured to have been chosen,'' he said, adding that it still hadn't "sunk in fully."

He is the first referee from the county to handle a final since Tommy Howard took charge of the 1993 decider between Cork and Derry. That game was noteworthy for the controversial decision to send off Cork wing-back Anthony Davis, who was subsequently exonerated.