All-Ireland Countdown: Will the hurling final match officials have access to Hawk-Eye?

Concerns about the Hawk-Eye score detection system quickly passed from the weekend’s All-Ireland football semi-finals to the imminent hurling final and whether the technology will be available to assist match officials.

GAA officials were in discussions with the UK-based company on Monday morning with a view to identifying the glitch that caused a valid 45, kicked over by Galway’s Shane Walsh, to be challenged and incorrectly disallowed just on the stroke of half-time.

Hawk-Eye technicians did not immediately identify the cause of the problem but GAA officials say they will know more on Tuesday and were privately optimistic that the system would be up and running for Sunday’s hurling final between Limerick and Kilkenny.

That would trigger a sigh of relief, as hurling, with its smaller ball and higher rate of points scoring, generally has a greater need for the technology to assist referees and umpires.

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Suspicions that the Hill 16 rather than Davin Stand technology had been the malfunctioning appear to be groundless but presumably all concerns will be part of the review.

There is already relief that Saturday’s error came to light when it did, just at the end of the first half, which gave the match officials time to consider the matter. RTÉ cameras had picked out the fact that the point had been good and alerted the GAA.

Association director of games administration Feargal McGill was present in Croke Park and spoke to referee Brendan Cawley from Kildare. Awarding scores is entirely the call of a referee and Cawley restored the missing point.

It appears that he was entirely within his rights to do so both because the rules give that exclusive power to the referee, but also because the match officials charged with the initial determination of scores, umpires, had originally flagged the point before being incorrectly overruled.

Hawk-Eye operates on the basis of four cameras at either end of the ground, which capture and track the movement of the ball. The graphic representation on the big screen and television is simply a means of communicating the outcome.

In its nine years of deployment, the score detection system has proved a success with a very low error rate. As one GAA official pointed out, though, the technology has to be perceived as ‘infallible’ if players, team officials and spectators are to have confidence in it.

Interestingly, when it was stood down on Sunday, the winning point in the Dublin-Kerry semi-final, kicked in the dying seconds of injury time by Kerry’s Seán O’Shea, from a 53-metre free, caused no issue for the umpires.

The cost of winning for Kilkenny referees

All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny currently top the All-Ireland roll of honour with 36 titles. Opponents Limerick just broke double figures last year with their 10th. Roles are reversed on another All-Ireland roll of honour, the number of referees from the respective counties to have taken charge of a final.

Limerick lead the way with 25, the most recent being Pat O’Connor, who refereed the 2003 final between Cork and Kilkenny. It’s 38 years now since Pascal Long was Kilkenny’s most recent All-Ireland referee although it was a significant final, played in Thurles to mark the centenary of the GAA.

Kilkenny could argue that with their being so successful in reaching and winning All-Irelands, referees from the county wouldn’t have had major career opportunities. With nine appointments, the county is in joint seventh place.

Strengthening the theory of opportunity is the identity of the top three. After Limerick come Offaly with 20 and Dublin with 15.

Number: 3

The number of starting Kilkenny players in the semi-final win over Clare with All-Ireland medals: Eoin Murphy, Pádraig Walsh and TJ Reid. Another three, Cillian Buckley, Walter Walsh and Richie Hogan were on the bench.

Quote

“We won by five points so that’s something. Obviously we’ll look back at the game. Will we have to improve to win the semi-final? Nothing surer. That’s the nature of championships. The farther you go, the more is required of you,” – Kilkenny manager Brian Cody’s somewhat overlooked manifesto after the poorly received Leinster final win over Galway.