"I Don't Agree With That": Joe Canning Calls Out Cork Star's Dive In Munster Elimination Clash

Cork defeated Waterford by six points in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship on Sunday afternoon to secure their spot in both the Munster Hurling Final and the quarter-final stages of the All-Ireland Championship.

With their season hanging on the brink, it was do or die for both sides coming into Sunday's Clash. For Waterford, only the full two points were going to keep their season alive, while for Cork, a draw or win would have proved sufficient to at least see them into the All-Ireland Championship.

Deflated from their heavy loss to Limerick last weekend, it took Pat Ryan's Rebels some time to get going, and for large swathes of the first half, it was Waterford who looked the more likely to be enjoying a busy summer.

While even the second half may not have lived up to its billing, it was close, tense and fiery throughout. Little love was lost between the two sides. Ultimately, it was a more confident and slick Cork that slowly but surely took their second-half chances and nudged some way in front.

Waterford were never deterred and fought in every sense of the word until the final whistle. When the hour mark passed, Stephen Bennett had just claimed a sensational goal to close the gap to three points. Cork, however, proved particularly efficient in the closing stages, running down the clock, holding the ball, and ultimately taking the wind out of a defiant Waterford side's sails.

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As has come to be expected from the ever-exciting Munster Senior Hurling Championship, there was no shortage of tension or battling between the two sides. The most ferocious and controversial of their encounters came in the opening half during a small scuffle, when Waterford's Darragh Lyons was denied a potential free.

He and Shane Barrett were standing side by side, and taking umbrage with the Corkonian's proximity to him, Lyons pushed him away with his hurl, catching Barrett in the neck and sending him to the deck. Despite immediate calls for action, referee Johnny Murphy thought his antics were overboard and told him to get up.

However, the incident did cause debate on the RTÉ Sunday Game panel, where Joe Canning called out Barrett for taking to the ground too easily and suggested he was trying to get Lyons booked.

Here, Darragh Lyons, he should've gotten the free first of all, obviously a bit aggrieved and here he just (gets his hurl) a bit up to his neck.

Now Barrett goes down very easy to me right. There's a thing coming in now where there's lads going down way too easy as well and they're trying to get lads yellow cards or maybe sent off. I don't agree with that either and in fairness Johnny Murphy, he went straight away 'Barrett get up, just clear off, lads'.

He should have got a free before that and Waterford should've maybe got a score and then there'd be nothing, so it's getting the right decisions at the right times.

Anthony Daly, Joe Canning and Jackie Tyrrell debate one of the officiating flashpoints from the first half between Cork and Waterford as the match resumes

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It's fair to say that Joe Canning's no-nonsense verdict on the incident wasn't getting unanimous support from fellow panel members Joanne Cantwell or Anthony Daly.

Cantwell quizzed Canning on at least three occasions about his justification of the incident, suggesting that an eye-for-an-eye didn't make the call right. While Daly thought the 'jab' of the hurl turned the incident into something more serious than Canning was letting on.

"I think he was lucky to get away with it," said Daly.

It seemed to me to be a jab with the hurley. If it was just his hand on faceguard I would have nearly gone with Joe's thinking on it, but I think there's a jab of the hurley. He's frustrated now, how it was a free against him was wrong.