Manley unhappy with refereeing performance

Cork's Hannah Looney ©INPHO/Tom O'Hanlon

Ger Manley criticised the performance of referee Justin Heffernan following Cork’s narrow All-Ireland senior camogie final defeat to Galway.

The Rebels were denied a three-in-a-row of O’Duffy Cups after losing Hannah Looney to a first half red card which the manager questioned along with the winning free converted by Carrie Dolan, which he claimed was a ‘dive’ by the Galway captain.

“It was a funny one. From where I was, I thought she came across and she sort of went into her alright a bit. But he said she struck and I think Thompson got one for an elbow. Jesus, I couldn’t see it. I just could not see it,” Manley said of the Looney sending off.

“Amy Lee, we all saw it on the big screen, the push in the back. We were beaten by a point. We’d nearly need to be looking for VAR. If that was in a soccer match, it would have been cancelled out. Clodagh Finn got fouled near the end, a blatant push again. The sending off had a huge bearing but we probably played better with 14 players. It’s very tough on Hannah.”

The Cork boss also felt more time should have been played following the stoppage for the winning free.

“There could have been another minute there because play was stopped and he just blew it up. You go back to the hooter in the football… It might be no harm at times [to introduce the hooter into camogie] if they’re playing four or five minutes because the game should be stopped a bit.

“Look, it’s small things now straight after the match,” a disappointed Manley added.