Did referee Roche exceed authority on crucial free?

TIPPERARY referee Seamus Roche is understood to have exceeded his authority in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final by changing his award of a Kilkenny free to a throw-in.

It led directly to the scoring of Galway’s fourth goal at the three-quarters stage of the game and had a crucial bearing on the outcome.

Authoritative sources questioned the correctness of Roche’s call, which he made after an alleged remark from the Kilkenny captain Peter Barry - the player who had actually won the free.

It’s believed Barry indicated that a Kilkenny free was overdue and that it was the result of a degree of frustration on his part over earlier decisions.

Clearly, the decision not to allow the free that he did receive was a reaction from Roche to what Barry said. However, under the rules of ‘Dissent’, the penalty for a player challenging the authority of a match official is merely a caution (for the first offence). And, where a player shows dissent with the referee’s decision to award a free to the opposing team, the free is advanced 13 metres.

There is no provision in the rule for what happened on Sunday. At the time, it increased Galway’s lead from four points to seven (4-15 to 3-11).

While this incident occurred in the second half, Kilkenny were not one bit pleased with Roche’s refereeing of the game in the first half. Kilkenny chairman Ned Quinn confirmed yesterday that he voiced their dissatisfaction to the referee at half-time.

Privately, however, it is understood that they are seething with anger over elements of the refereeing, but publicly they will not comment. Manager Brian Cody was very gracious towards Galway after the game and at official level there is an unwillingness to say anything that would undermine that approach.

Whatever about the merits of the decision, former selector Noel Skehan felt that the referee was “hasty” in throwing in the ball.

“John Tennyson was after advancing out to take the free and Peter Barry had only got up off the ground. I think the referee threw in the ball too fast. He didn’t give the boys a chance,’’ he said. “Peter was only able to pull with one hand. I’m not saying his decision was wrong or right, I don’t know what he pulled up Peter for. Can he change his decision like that? I thought you would only lose your free if you retaliate.”

Skehan praised the Kilkenny players for the character they showed.

“They fought back well. It was touch and go at the finish. But you would have to say that Galway played most of the hurling - except that just weren’t able to put away Kilkenny.”

If he had a criticism to make of Kilkenny it was that the Galway half-backs had the freedom to go forward regularly and support the attack. He felt the same about midfielder David Tierney, whom he regarded as the man-of-the-match.

While he accepted that Noel Hickey was an obvious loss, he felt that John Tennyson did quite well for much of the game in what was clearly a very testing challenge.

Skehan said that if he were in Conor Hayes’ shoes, he would be worried facing into the All-Ireland final. “We all know it was a great match, it had all the skills and there were great scores. Everything was good for the game of hurling. But when you look back and see that Kilkenny scored 4-18 and when, let’s be honest, some of their players didn’t play well, you have to think seriously about what happened.

“Eddie Brennan’s goal came from a mistake when the corner-back slipped and another from the pass that was given across the goal - something you should never do. That was a bit of a disaster. Against Cork you won’t get away with this kind of thing. I don’t think their pace will trouble Cork - their backs are pacy enough too and they will keep it tight.’’

Longer-term, he’s not sure if Brian Cody will stay on and his advice to Peter Barry and DJ Carey would be to think long and hard before making any rash decision about their future.

“Whatever they do, they have each given great service to Kilkenny over a long number of years. And, they have given Kilkenny supporters great entertainment,’’ he added.