Referee cost Tyrone a place in final, claims secretary Dominic McCaughey

Tyrone secretary Dominic McCaughey claims poor refereeing by Maurice Deegan contributed to the county’s demise against Kerry in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

McCaughey, no stranger to making incendiary comments in relation to Kerry in the past, writes in his annual report that the Laois official made dubious calls which proved costly to Tyrone.

“Played in incessant rain, Tír Eoghain displayed outstanding skill, fierce determination and relentless intensity but the inability to convert several goal opportunities and a number of missed free-kicks, together with a few highly-questionable refereeing decisions resulted in a very narrow defeat.

“In the closing stages of the game, the failure to award a penalty to the Red Hands for a clear foul ensured the opportunity of appearing in a first final since 2008 slipped away.”

McCaughey makes no reference to the Tiernan McCann incident in the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Monaghan nor does he mention the alleged sledging in the U21 All-Ireland final against Tipperary and Ulster minor first round game v Donegal.

He does comment on the worrying trends in the excessive amount of training being done by players, saying the GAA “can now easily be described as a training and coaching industry — not a games’ association”. He believes much of it is driven by outside coaches and trainers and would like to see a restriction on their use of such individuals.

He says the training-to-game ratio is unbalanced and beginning to turn off club players. “If the great majority of players want to participate in games rather than in training sessions, it is they who should convey this message to the coaches or the managers; as a group or a panel, the players should be determining what they want for their team and from their club, rather than allowing an individual coach or manager — often coming in from a neighbouring club or county — to tell them what is best for them.”