Gallant Galway done no favours by referee in a cracking decider

Galway 0-16

THEY couldn’t have done any more; they left everything on the field, hooked and harried themselves to a standstill, were carried out on their shields, and they did the county proud in camogie’s biggest game of the year at Croke Park on Sunday.

And, frustratingly, it still wasn’t enough for a defiant Galway to regain the O’Duffy Cup in a thrilling All-Ireland final as the breaks went Cork’s way in securing a 30th championship triumph.

More telling, however, was the officiating of Liz Dempsey, who failed to award Galway a couple of blatant frees late on when the match hung in the balance – never mind the Cork goal which shouldn’t have stood.

The Kilkenny referee and, more critically, her umpires missed the fact that Katrina Mackey failed to make contact with her hurley in ushering the ball over the line in the 36th minute after being set up by Amy O’Connor. It had shades of Joe Sheridan’s controversial late goal against Louth in the 2010 Leinster Football Final

Admittedly, in real time, it was difficult for the match officials to see what exactly happened – the rest of us have the benefit of multiple replays – but the goal was illegal, and it being such a high stakes encounter only compounded the post-match aggravation.

Significantly, Galway didn’t protest at the time, but it was a different story when AnnMarie Starr, who rolled back the years, was bodychecked after making a great interception or when substitute Ally Hesnan was the victim of a foul pull from behind close to the Cork posts near the end.

Dodgy tackling on the terrific Aoife Donohue and Carrie Dolan in the same incident – Galway could have had a penalty – were also ignored in the second-half, and it took the intervention of a linesmen for the Tribeswomen to even get a free further out the field. There was also the disputable free awarded against Niamh Kilkenny for charging.

Putting all those incidents together, Galway were certainly done no favours by Dempsey, although it must be acknowledged that Dolan landed all seven frees, while Cork only had four scoreable frees awarded over the near 70-minutes of quality action.

All summer the Rebels had lain waste to any team barring their path – including Galway in a group match – and they were hot favourites to retain their All-Ireland crown in style on Sunday, only for Cathal Murray’s team to produce an admirable display of sheer heart, aggression, courage and no little quality.

Galway ran themselves into the ground and worked their socks off in pursuit of victory. They had the champions rattled on several occasions and did magnificently to recover from the concession of 1-4 at the start of the second-half.

Having trailed by 0-10 to 0-9 at the interval after the teams had been level eight times, that scoring blitz suddenly put Cork six points clear and there was brief concern that the floodgates might open.

Pictured: Galway's Carrie Dolan comes under pressure from Cork defender Pamela Mackey during Sunday's All-Ireland Senior Camogie Final at Croke Park  Photos: INPHO/James Lawlor & Bryan Keane,