Cunningham has full confidence in final ref Kelly

Galway hurling manager Anthony Cunningham says he and his team have “no fears referee-wise” ahead of the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny.

Cats boss Brian Cody stated earlier this week that he hoped there would not be an over-reaction in the decider to the unruly scenes at the start of the Kilkenny-Tipperary All-Ireland semi-final.

Cunningham paid tribute last night to the man who will handle the game, experienced referee Barry Kelly. “Hurling has evolved as a game,” said Cunningham. “It has become far more intense, the tackles are much harder, the games are brilliant — and the referees have contributed to that magnificently in last few years. Standard of refereeing is very high now and there is nothing in this camp but respect for referees, the way they have helped to evolve the game.

“For us, we have no fears referee-wise — Barry Kelly has been an extraordinary referee for the lastnumber of years, he’s very experienced and we have no doubt there won’t be any problems in that sphere.”

Cunningham added that he had not seen Cody’s remarks but stressed that Kilkenny have not been involved in dirty play.

“I didn’t see the comments, we don’t follow the press that closely because we’re busy training. The games Kilkenny have been involved in, winning eight All-Ireland titles since 2000, those have been fantastic spectacles.

“There hasn’t been any mean play, any dirty play, they play it hard and they play it fair and I don’t think it’ll be any different the next day. It’ll be hard, fast and fair, an intense game — that’s what we expect from Kilkenny and it’s what they’ll expect from us.”

Regarding the melee in the opening minutes the Galway boss said he had seen nothing untoward in the exchanges.

“I don’t think there was that much different last day, obviously there were some tactics involved with someplayers trying to match up with certain other players, but there was nothing there that needed any further... acouple of yellow cards, that was it, then the game settled down and got going.

“There’s hype, there’s intensity, there’s high tension in All-Ireland finals and semi-finals. There’s a lot at stake. But it was all within the rules the last day and any games we’ve seen Kilkenny play over the years, it’s allbeen within the rules.”