The former Cork hurler and three time All-Ireland winner Ben O’Connor has said that the current standard of refereeing is ‘cat’.
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“The standard of refereeing at the moment is cat and it is ruining our game,” said O’Connor, who was speaking ahead of his appearance on Laochra Gael tomorrow night, alongside his twin brother Jerry.
“I’ll give you a couple of incidents. If Diarmaid Byrnes is a sending off, I dunno. I couldn’t see anything in it anyway.
“Diarmuid Byrnes gave away a free. He done exactly what you’d ask a player to do – get your leg in over the ball to get your body over it.
“(The) Clare player threw himself down to the ground as if he was shot – there must have been a sniper above in the stand. The next thing there was pushing and shoving. I saw no slap being thrown and Byrnes got a red card.”
Clare’s Tony Kelly was involved in an incident earlier in the game where he caught Adam English, and received a yellow card.
“They were calling for Tony Kelly’s head for the slap,” said O’Connor. “Like, it’s supposed to be the fastest field game in the world and it was a split second.
“Tony Kelly did not need to touch that fella, Adam English, in the head. And in fairness to Adam English, he got up straight away when he got the tap. What made it look worse of course was the drop of blood.
“I’m not just picking on him (Kelly). He’s turning fast and his hurley is up and it just happens he hits Adam English on the helmet.
“I’d say fair play to Adam English, he jumped up and there wasn’t a word out of him. If that’s a red card, that game is ruined if Tony Kelly is sent off.”
Speaking about blood injuries, O’Connor continued: “I was above in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday night.
“The linesman went into the field and took the Kilkenny corner forward off because he was bleeding from the knee.
“That corner-forward was off for about six minutes. That could have been the time that the corner-forward got three balls into his hand and got three goals.