Cusack And Shefflin Disagree On Who Instigated Halftime Scuffle In Munster Final

All season, the talk amongst hurling circles has been of an inevitable-feeling Cork-Limerick trilogy. Part Two of that was the 2025 Munster final, and it fully delivered.

The first meeting between Limerick and Cork in the Munster round robin was a one-sided rout but Saturday's meeting was anything but.

Cork took the decision to play with the wind at their back and built up a lead before Limerick charged back in the second quarter.

There were four points in it when ref Thomas Walsh blew for halftime.

Just after the halftime whistle there was a scuffle involving both management teams and Walsh. John Kiely, Paul Kinnerk, Pat Ryan and Wayne Sherlock all exchanged words on the pitch.

What sparked that confrontation, and who was to blame was the source of disagreement between RTÉ's Sunday Game panel.

HT LIM 1-10 COR 1-14"It's Saturday Night Fever at the Gaelic Grounds..." - both benches unhappy with the officials at the break.#rtegaa📺@rte2 & @rteplayer📻 @rteradio1📱Updates: https://t.co/cI3G1IS4wg pic.twitter.com/fU2EGd5Dv0

— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 7, 2025

Liam Sheedy firstly made a point to praise Walsh's first half performance.

Walsh has a reputation as a 'let them flow' referee, which is great in terms of a spectacle but often a source of contention amongst coaches.

It got very heated here as you can imagine. Looking back on the first half, I think Thomas Walsh did a great job. In a high-intensity match like this, it's hard to get all the calls right. They got pulled on one end for a throw pass that ended up in Cian Lynch's goal being disallowed. It was hard to see separation for Brian Hayes's handpass and that one stood and ended up in the back of the net.

Henry Shefflin meanwhile noted that the Cork coaching ticket were very vocal throughout the first game, unlike the previous Munster round robin match between the counties. He thought Limerick's coaches acting in reaction to Pat Ryan approaching the ref.

"I thought Limerick were reacting to it, to be honest with you. They were saying 'we can see he's going for the referee'. In fairness, the players are letting him alone, they're hurling," he said.

Hilariously, Donal Óg Cuscack attempted to take off his Cork hat to give his own take on events. Not surprisingly, he saw it completely differently to Shefflin.

I may sound biased now, but when we analyse that back again. I think it was the other way. I genuinely do. I'm telling you I do. It was Kiely and Kinnerk going out, and straight away Wayne Sherlock and Pat Ryan, their focus was to say, 'hold on a second here, he's refereeing the game. Why are ye trying to referee it?' And I guess that can be seen as a biased point of view, but that was my view of it.

Cusack's reaction jarred with what journalists in the pressbox saw.