Pádraic Joyce: HawkEye issue and Sean Hurson's appointment as All-Ireland final referee

UNFAZED: Galway manager Padraic Joyce. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Galway manager Pádraic Joyce has said HawkEye cannot be trusted after the mistake made by the score detection system in ruling out Shane Walsh’s ‘45 during Saturday’s All-Ireland football semi-final.

HawkEye has undergone a series of tests this week to determine the root cause behind the incorrect call, with the GAA yet to confirm if the technology will be in use for either of the All-Ireland senior finals.

When asked if he would be worried about HawkEye going forward, Joyce replied that he would.

“You don’t mind a marginal call that’s over the top of the post, you wouldn’t worry about it - but one that’s a foot inside it. It was clear the last day Shane Walsh’s ‘45 was inside it and you just wonder what’s going on with that,” said Joyce at the county’s pre-final press event.

Although he acknowledged that the Walsh ‘45 was the “first real mistake” HawkEye had made since incorrectly ruling out a Barry Nash Limerick point during the 2013 All-Ireland minor hurling semi-final, Joyce admitted to having lost trust in the score detection system.

“You couldn’t trust it after Saturday and what happened with Shane Walsh’s 45.” But despite this utterance, the Galway manager stopped short of calling for the technology to be stood down on Sunday week.

“I am not getting involved in it. I have a million things to do before Sunday week. Again, it’s out of my control. Croke Park are the governing body. They look after this stuff.” Joyce, meanwhile, has no issue with the fact that the man who will take charge of Sunday week’s All-Ireland final hails from the same Tyrone club as Kerry coach Paddy Tally.

The GAA yesterday announced that Sean Hurson will referee the Galway-Kerry decider on July 24, even though both Hurson and Kerry coach Tally are from the Galbally Pearses club in Tyrone.

Joyce is confident that irrespective of how friendly the pair might be, it will have no impact on Hurson’s handling of what will be his first All-Ireland senior final.

“I have got texts galore about that,” replied the Galway manager when asked about Hurson’s appointment and his club connections with Tally.

“I had known that and I knew he was in line for the final. Look, Sean is a top class referee and I am not going to question anything Sean Hurson is going to do on the day, he is going to do his job. He is a man of integrity and whether he is friendly with Paddy Tally or not, it does not matter.

“Brendan Cawley, who refereed Galway’s semi-final, is from the same town as Cian O’Neill and even though they are rival clubs no one mentioned that.

“It should not be an issue and in fairness to the GAA if they were trying to pick referees who had no relationship with teams or selectors or whatever they would find it hard to get one.” 

This will be Hurson’s first championship game involving Galway since the 2020 Connacht final, a game after which Joyce was particularly critical of Hurson’s refereeing performance.

Following Galway’s one-point defeat to Mayo in November of 2020, Joyce described several calls made by Hurson as “baffling”, taking umbrage with the decision to call back the play after Galway had taken quickly a sideline kick in the Mayo half in the fourth and final minute of second-half injury-time.

“You’d have to question the officiating there. I couldn’t believe some of it. Gary Sice took the sideline kick, found Mike Daly. He was straight through probably on goal if he got it,” the Galway manager said at the time.

“[The referee] took it back because Gary took it two yards from the wrong spot. But sure how could he take it where the thing was given because there were five Mayo players standing there?

“A lot of things annoyed me. Liam Silke near the end, there was definitely a man lying on his back 14 yards from goal. I don't know how he didn't give a free in for that. It was ridiculous.” Hurson also made a crucial call in second-half stoppages when he deemed that Galway’s Sean Kelly was fouled outside rather than inside the large parallelogram, at a time when Galway trailed by two.

Joyce recalled the incident at yesterday’s All-Ireland football final press event in Pearse Stadium.

“We had Sean here in the Connacht final that Sean Kelly got pulled down and I had a few words that day about it.

“I know there is a bit of talk about Sean, but it is a great honour for him. He will be fine. There will be no issue with referees for us because I always say we can control everything bar the weather and the referee, so it should not come down to refereeing decisions anyway.”