Henry Shefflin was critical of referee Johnny Murphy’s performance in Galway’s 1-23 to 1-15 Allianz National Hurling League defeat of Dublin.
The Limerick referee issued four red cards during the game, with three Galway men and one Dub having been sent off in a fiery Pearse Stadium clash.
Shefflin felt that referee Murphy was too visible in the game, and criticised him afterwards for not allowing any great ‘flow’ to develop in the contest.
Murphy had issued six yellows and one black card in a tense opening half that eventually saw Galway into the interval leading by 1-10 to 1-8. By the end of the game, 11 yellows, four reds and a further black card had been issued.
Galway corner back Jack Grealish was the first player to receive his marching orders having picked up a second yellow card early on in the second half. Shefflin said that his corner back was ‘very unlucky’ to have been sent off.
Fintan Burke had been black carded before-hand, for his part in conceding a penalty that was eventually scored by Donal Burke. Daithí Burke, meanwhile, was sent off in the dying stages off the game for Galway, as was Dublin’s Ronan Hayes.
Shefflin admitted that he hadn’t seen the striking incident which led to Conor Whelan’s red card, but called for more protection for players like Whelan.
“I truthfully didn’t see it. But I can imagine…I know Conor as a very abrasive player when the ball is around him. He takes a lot of punishment,” Shefflin told RTÉ’s Darren Frehill.
“Sometimes that punishment that goes on 45 or 50 minutes – I’ve been in that position myself – you can sometimes react. I would ask,” Shefflin continued, “was there protection in advance of that?”
“I thought there was no flow to the game (overall) and unfortunately people will be talking about the referee’s performance, the sendings off and not penalties.
“The best of referees we just don’t talk about them, we don’t really see them. Unfortunately there was a lot of incidents today [where] the crowd, on both sides, were wondering what way the decision was going to go.”
Speaking on The Sunday Game, former Antrim hurler Neil McManus backed up Shefflin’s point that star forwards like Whelan deserve more protection from referees.
“You can get frustrated,” began McManus.
“You can be telling the umpires all day ‘look, he’s holding me, he’s tripping me, running across me.’
“And the umpires are saying they’ll call the referee in. But it hardly ever happens that they bring the referee in. And if they don’t, nothing actually happens,” he said.
“They have to bring the referee in, book the full back, and give a free.”
“You’ll only have to do it once,” added Anthony Daly, who echoed McManus’ and Shefflin’s point.
” If the ref blows the whistle, marches back one hundred yards, that’ll stop it.”
That being said, Daly made no excuses for the Galway captain, and says he deserved to be sent off. This was the first red card of Whelan’s inter-county career.
“I know Henry is on about more protection for Conor Whelan, he gets a lot of attention, that’s up to the umpires. Paddy Smyth is holding his hurley. But you just can’t react like this. You can’t just pull across a fella’s midriff.
“Maybe he does need more protection but it still doesn’t excuse Whelan though for letting fly. You can’t do that.”
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