There was some confusion in the aftermath of the All-Ireland club football final as Kilmacud Crokes appeared to defend Glen’s last roll of the dice with 16 men.
Conor Ferris had just denied Conor Glass with a sensational injury-time save and, as the ball went out for a 45, it meant that the Derry side had one last chance to rescue this game.
As managers tend to do in those sorts of situations, Robbie Brennan brought on two subs at that very moment as the Crokes tried to run down the clock, and calm the thing down.
Tom Fox was the first sub he called on, and he went into replace the eventual man-of-the-match Dara Mullin. Conor Casey was the next man in, and he replaced Paul Mannion.
It has since emerged that Dara Mullin remained on the pitch for that last play. Mullin is the Kilmacud Crokes number 14 and as you will see in the picture below, he defended Conleth McGuckin’s late-shot from the Kilmacud Crokes goal-line.
Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke was asked about the issue in his post-match press-conference and he replied by saying “I don’t think it’s the way the club do things.”
He had noticed at the time, however, that Crokes had an extra player on the pitch and did ask for the 45 to be retaken. His assistant Ryan Porter also brought it to the referee’s attention, looking for the 45 to be retaken, but to no avail.
Separate screenshots have also shown that Paul Mannion was also within the four white lines when the 45 was taken, though he was making his way off the pitch at the time.
We await comment from the Kilmacud Crokes camp.
