Malachy O’Rourke: 'We felt some of the calls that went against us were really harsh'

The Tyrone boss pointed to a couple of marginal calls that proved pivotal against Kerry

David Clifford of Kerry, as Tyrone manager Malachy O'Rourke reacts, during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Kerry and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Tyrone manager Malachy O’Rourke felt they were on the wrong end of some crucial calls during their quarter-final defeat to Kerry in Croke Park.

The defending champions edged an epic encounter on Saturday evening, but Tyrone were left aggrieved at a number of decisions that went against them. Kerry were awarded a 45 for a shot that appeared to go wide and Conn Kilpatrick was furious that he was not awarded a kickout mark in the second half.

“We always expect ourselves to come up and put in a good performance,” said O’Rourke.

“We knew the boys were training well after coming through a couple of tough games which leaves you battle-hardened. We knew there were areas we had to improve as well. I thought in fairness in the first half, we were a wee bit off it.

“They won too many kickouts and when you give Kerry possession, they usually end up in an attack and a score. So that was the thing we had to be better on in the second half. All over the field, we had to show more urgency.

“There was break ball that we maybe weren’t quick enough for. We wanted our forwards to come alive. We have a lot of young legs, fresh legs, we wanted to take the game to Kerry a wee bit more in the second half. We did that, just disappointed we didn’t get anything out of it.” 

With the final play, Armin Heinrich rolled in a goal to make it a four-point win.

“I suppose, you would know better than me watching detached, we felt some of the calls that went against us were really harsh,” said O’Rourke.

“Maybe it will look different on the video when we look at it. Marginal calls, they were really hard. At one stage, the Kerry boys even stopped playing because it seemed so blatant to us. It is really hard to take in such a tight game that it happened. I’m not here to blame referees or anything else, but at the same time to us, we seemed to get a very hard deal.” 

Paudie Clifford went on to convert the 45 that seemed to be incorrectly awarded.

“How is that happening? Sometimes you have that in your mind before you come down, thinking we are not getting the rub of the green. You just have to suck it up, but it certainly seemed harsh to me out there.”