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9th June 2025
11:30am BST
Limerick boss John Kiely was not too pleased at one aspect of the refereeing in Saturday's epic Munster SHC final against Cork.
He felt that referee John Owens gave too much added time in the second-half of extra-time.
Owens had decided on an extra minute, but ended the play after four extra minutes.
Kiely said: "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."
However, speaking on The Sunday Game, former Tipperary goalkeeper, Brendan Cummins, succinctly explained why the referee got the time correct, and why Cork were able to take a late 65 to bring the game to penalties.
He said: "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."
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