Cummins Explains Why Keily Was Wrong About Contentious Issue In Munster Final

While Saturday's Munster hurling final would be decided in the most dramatic of circumstances, there were some in the Limerick camp that seemed unhappy with the sequence of events that resulted in the game finishing as a draw after extra-time.

Limerick boss John Kiely felt that the amount of added time given by James Owen at the end of the additional periods to be a particular point of contention, saying this to the press after the game:

There was three minutes gone, it is hard to find three minutes of added time in a 10-minute half. There was only one minute in the first half.

As I said, we'll have to go back, watch the tape, analyse it, break it down before we formulate a concrete opinion of it. But it was a little difficult to understand.

Aaron Gillane would put Limerick ahead as the match entered its 90th minute, with Cork not levelling affairs until deep into the 94th minute.

This may seem like a sizeable chunk of injury time at the end of a ten-minute half, although others believe that the officials got it spot on.

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Appearing on The Sunday Game last night, former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins would give a forensic breakdown on why the officials played as much additional time as they did.

He would go through a number of different incidents that contributed to their decision, also explaining why the awarding of a 65' late on also played a part. In all, he felt the referee got things right.

Yeah, there was a lot when we went into extra time. There are 10 minutes, and added time is always going to be a big part of it...

You can see the referee in the middle, Owens, he points out one minute of additional time is what he is saying to his officials outside. Then you have Shane O’Brien being fouled by Cahalane, you can see on the clock was just under 90 minutes, but behind all that Cian Lynch picked up an head injury and needed attention.

Hence, he had to leave the field of play. All of this took one minute to happen for Lynch to get off the pitch...

Then onto the Peter Casey incident there will be Limerick fans saying there was a hand by Downey that caused Casey to fall over either way the referee has given a free again.

We are into injury time 20 seconds beyond it the free comes in and, in fairness to the referee, he didn’t tell Fitzgibbon that this was the last puck of the game Nickie Quaid gets away with one and on 92:37 seconds then suddenly Fitzgibbon is taking the 65.

I think the important piece here is something that I didn’t realise, as I spoke to several referees over the day, is that the rule book states that if it goes out for a 65, you must let the 65 be taken...

So, to be fair to the official, they got the timing right with the game. Limerick might have a gripe over the Peter Casey one; it was one way or another, depending on how you would give it. In fairness to the officials, the time-keeping was spot on.

The fact that Cork were entitled to take that late 65' regardless of how much time was left on the clock certainly puts the amount of additional time that was played into perspective.

Limerick may feel hard done by, but it seems that the referee got things right.