Offaly manager bites his tongue at referee’s ‘harsh’ decision

YOU expect players and managers to be bitterly disappointed minutes after losing a provincial title but Kevin Kilmurray and Karol Slattery cut more disconsolate figures than most of those who have suffered the same misfortune in Croke Park down the years.

The Offaly manager is an engaging and friendly character at the best of times but this obviously wasn’t one of those times.

His first game in charge of his native county was an O’Byrne Cup qualifier against Laois in Portlaoise two Januarys ago, a day when the experimental rules hamstrung his side’s hopes of success.

It may have been only the O’Byrne Cup but Kilmurray was so dejected — not to mention furious — after the final whistle that he couldn’t bring himself to speak to the gathering reporters.

Imagine what he must have been like yesterday then. Kilmurray’s main beef seemed to be with the referee who booked Stephen Cluxton for a rugby tackle on Cathal Daly on half-time and sent off Alan McNamee for a second yellow midway through the second-half.

It wasn’t what he said but more what he didn’t that caught the ear.

“As a manager you choose your words and you choose them carefully,” said Kilmurray in between lengthy and hugely uncomfortable silences. “What I will do is look at the video and it’s probably better to comment on things after that.”

He did go on to make a reference to “gamesmanship” with the clear inference being that Coman Goggins made the most of McNamee’s late tackle on him.

Slattery touched on the same incidents. “We went a man down and I personally think it was very harsh. In the first half Stephen Cluxton took our guy down deliberately and, if that was soccer, he would have been sent off. Alan got sent off harshly. Cathal got up straight away but some guys stayed down longer than others and we’re not too happy about that.”

Manager and skipper were both quick to add the rider that the best team won but, such was the extent of their disappointment with certain decisions, that it gives rise to the theory that those perceived injustices must have been at least partly responsible for their poor second-half display.

“The best team on the day won,” said Slattery. “The referee was a bit nervous, like ourselves. It was a bit new for him. I think the GAA should think about that. That’s not being sore losers.”

Isn’t there some saying that says young teams have to know what it is like to lose these games before they win them? “I don’t believe in that,” Kilmurray retorted. “It’s not right to say that Offaly have to lose a game like that before they win one. Maybe that makes losing easier but, as far as I’m concerned, we want to win every game and learning about football is not that simple.”