Doubt cast on yet another decision-making process

August 18 will go down as the day Hawk-Eye went down in Croke Park and it could turn out to be as historic as the day it was debuted in June.

Credit to Fergal Horgan in the minor match, he controlled the game well, but he was not helped by technology.

Going back over some old newspaper articles, the GAA articulated the primary reason behind Hawk-Eye was to bring further clarity to our games. It didn’t look so clear yesterday.

After the incident, I’m not sure whether teams and supporters will ever 100% believe what they see on the big screen after referees refer to the apparatus.

Hawk-Eye was supposed to come in last year but because of technological glitches didn’t make its first appearance until this championship season. The GAA reaffirmed the issue has been sorted and were satisfied everything was in order to go ahead with it. But going by yesterday’s events, the system is not fit for purpose.

Two people in the control booth are involved in the process: one person, a representative from the Hawk-Eye company, who operates the system, and the review official, a GAA official.

The decision 20 seconds after both the referee and the umpire were satisfied to award a score to Barry Nash was made by the Hawk-Eye representative. But Hawk-Eye is only the latest of several disciplinary decisions that have led to a lot of confusion around the country.

It now seems as if every sending off or retrospective call by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) is being challenged — and with a huge amount of success.

Referees don’t have any issues with an appeals system. Nor should they. There simply has to be one as a matter of fairness and an avenue of recourse. However, the whole integrity of the disciplinary system has been brought into question by what has been happening in both hurling and football with sendings off rescinded and the CCCC’s judgement questioned.

In the senior semi-final yesterday, referee Johnny Ryan didn’t let the absence of Hawk-Eye affect him. He received assistance from linesman Michael Wadding as well as his umpires in awarding a point to Limerick’s James Ryan.

Overall, Ryan had a good game, even if he was a little hard on Podge Collins and Cian Dillon for over-carrying, the latter incident incensing Davy Fitzgerald, resulting in the Clare manager running onto the pitch to voice his displeasure.