Liam Cahill says Tipperary were not worried about the possibility of a replay being ordered after last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final victory against Kilkenny ended in controversy.
The scoreboard mistakenly awarded Noel McGrath’s 70th-minute effort as a point, even though one of the umpires signalled the Tipp player’s shot had drifted wide of the Hill 16 posts.
That error gave Tipperary a four-point lead when in fact Kilkenny were three adrift. The score at the final whistle was given as 4-21 to 0-30, a three-point difference. However, just before 8pm on Sunday evening, the GAA amended it, with referee James Owens confirming the result as Tipperary 4-20 Kilkenny 0-30.
Speaking at Tipperary’s All-Ireland final media evening at Horse and Jockey on Tuesday, manager Cahill says there were no fears within the Tipp camp that the result would not stand.
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“No, no. What can we say, sure. It’s human error, that’s the bottom line,” said Cahill.
“A mistake was made but it had no effect on us, on what we wanted to achieve at the end of the day, which was just to get the result. Everybody in the GAA, we do our best to try and do things voluntary and keep things as right as we can. Unfortunately, it was just human error. What can be done, only move on.
“You can go into all the ins and out of it. There were several other passages of play and decisions that work out throughout the 74-plus minutes. The reality is that’s what big matches like that are made of and you just roll with the punches and you take the hits.
“We know that Kilkenny from the start of time are a huge hurling county and I said that afterwards on Sunday. Like ourselves, if Kilkenny don’t win it on the field, they aren’t going to bring it to the boardroom, that’s for sure. That’s one thing in Tipperary we were fully 100 per cent sure of.”
Cahill said he was judging the score during injury-time by the scoreboard but admitted there were some doubts raised by members of his backroom team.
“For me, we were going on the scoreboard. Through Declan [Laffan] and the lads down the earpiece, there might have been a little query all right, but for us we were playing what was in front of us.”
Cahill’s sentiments were echoed by Tipp vice-captain Jake Morris.
“[Kilkenny] are a serious, proud hurling county with some serious hurlers, they are a really good team,” said Morris.
[ Tactical Analysis: Tipperary’s ruthless efficiency and turnovers sank KilkennyOpens in new window ]
“Derek Lyng seems to be a really good operator, it is credit to them that they didn’t make as much of a complaint out of it as they could have.
“As Liam said, it was a human error. It was unfortunate for them but it is just the way it goes sometimes. You get the rub of the green sometimes and it fell our way last Sunday.
“I didn’t know what the story was when John Donnelly was hitting that shot at the end. We would have been three up [in my head] but to be honest you don’t even think about the score, you are just playing every ball as it comes to you.”
Cahill added that Tipperary have no fresh injury concerns. He hopes to have a fully fit squad to select from for the All-Ireland final against Cork on Sunday week.
Meanwhile, Liam Gordon from Galway has been announced as referee for the All-Ireland hurling final, his first senior final. Previously he has experience of reffing the All-Ireland under-20 final, the All-Ireland club final and the Munster hurling final.
