Hurling referee Barry Kelly and Kilkenny cross paths again

It may be six months since the word was uttered but with time it has become more powerful. Because it’s never been retracted. Never apologised for. And, let’s be honest, never denounced by a GAA official without any vim.

As far as we can gather, it’s still Brian Cody’s contention Barry Kelly’s decision to award Tipperary a last-gasp free in the drawn All-Ireland was “criminal”.

His and Kilkenny’s determination to contest a disrepute charge for the comments after the All-Ireland final replay would suggest he’s anything but contrite about dabbing a blot on the referee’s record.

Cody has since been asked twice about the comment only to fob off the line of enquiry with an “I’m not even interested in discussing it”. But there will be no getting away from the Westmeath man on Sunday when he takes charge of the county’s game against Galway in Pearse Stadium.

This is the earliest Kelly has officiated in a game involving Kilkenny since their epic 2012 Division 1 round three clash with Dublin in Nowlan Park. Clearly, the referee appointments committee wish to avoid delaying the inevitable and just get on with it.

Cody’s incendiary remarks should be placed in the context of Kilkenny’s recent history with Kelly. That morning in CityWest Hotel, this writer asked Cody if he would consider the referee’s decision to award the free against Brian Hogan in the same vein as his sending off of Henry Shefflin for two yellow cards in 2013 and a late free against Jackie Tyrrell in the 2013 All-Ireland final against Galway (which Joe Canning converted to force a replay). “Of course he has. Of course he has,” responded Cody.

Kilkenny were so miffed by Shefflin’s dismissal in the All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Cork in Thurles in 2013 that they contested the decision — and successfully so — even though there was no suspension associated with it. At the time, Cats legend Eddie Keher told local radio that “justice had been done”. Shefflin’s proud disciplinary record, he said, had be to defended. But can’t the same be said for Kelly’s largely impeccable refereeing career after what was said about him last September?

The drawn game may have been the nadir of Kilkenny’s relationship with Kelly but the sending off of Shefflin wasn’t so far different to it. One former inter-county player had to restrained from Kelly as he made his way off the pitch at half-time. In last year’s Men In Black documentary, current Kilkenny chairman Ned Quinn said something to Kelly at the end of the game which provoked the referee to say, “Hey! Hey! Don’t start now!”

But perhaps the comment which most typified Kilkenny’s attitude to Kelly was Tommy Walsh’s to Kelly after he issued Shefflin a second yellow card. As he ran past him, Walsh said: “What’s gone wrong with ya against us?” Kelly responded: “Be careful. You be very careful (number) 5”.

Some Kilkenny supporters who watched the documentary took issue with Kelly referring to Walsh by the number of his jersey when he called other players by their first names. Kilkenny also had a penalty goal disallowed by Kelly later in the game but Walsh had clearly infringed on the area before Richie Power took the shot. While Kelly’s respect for Shefflin also comes across in the programme when he says to Michael Fennelly after the second yellow: “He’d no complaints himself, the man he is!”

At half-time, he reviewed the decisions with his fourth official. “The first one was careless use of the hurl. He didn’t have to do it. The second one was a blatant yellow?” The fourth official agreed in both instances.

Kelly was jeered by Kilkenny supporters at half-time that day. “They’re booing because of one incident,” he recalled. “It would be the same in Westmeath if you sent off Dessie Dolan near the end of his career and he had won all that Henry has won.”

Review in isolation, each of the calls Kilkenny feel Kelly had wronged them — the free against Hogan, Shefflin’s yellow cards and the free against Tyrrell — and there doesn’t appear to be anything sinister. Last September’s decision was incorrect but Hogan’s entanglement with Pádraic Maher was that unclear it might have been a free against Tipperary or nothing at all.

But combine them the four and Kilkenny feel it’s right to ask has it all been coincidence? As much as the Cats have won when Kelly has been in charge, those perceived slights won’t be forgotten.

Before the start of that second half two years ago, Kelly warned his team of what they would face from Kilkenny fans. “There will be pressure now from the crowd, you know the usual, trying to get you to balance it up. You just have to referee and officiate it on its merits. Every decision is a new decision as such.” As he encounters Cody and Kilkenny in Salthill, Barry Kelly’s best advice is his own.