‘He’s a man of integrity’ - Padraic Joyce has no issue with Seán Hurson referee appointment

Galway senior football manager Padraic Joyce has “no issue” with Wednesday’s announcement of the selection of Tyrone referee Sean Hurson for Sunday week’s All-Ireland football final against Kerry. Hurson’s club Galbally Pearses, in Dungannon, is also the home club of current Kerry coach Paddy Tally.

“That has been brought up this morning with me – I got texts, texts galore about that!

“But I’d known that, and I knew he was in line for the final and, look it, Seán is a top-class referee. I’m not going to question anything that Seán Hurson’s going to do on the day. He’s going to do his job and he’s a man of integrity. Whether he’s friendly with Paddy Tally or not doesn’t matter. I mean, Brendan Cawley refereed the game the last day and he’s from the same town as Cian O’Neill, you could say, even though rival clubs – no one mentioned that. It shouldn’t be an issue, to be honest. And in fairness to the GAA, if they were trying to pick referees that had no relationships with teams or selectors or whatever, they’d find it hard.

“But to me I think it’s a great honour for him – a great honour for anyone to be in an All-Ireland final – so he’ll be fine, there’s no issue with referees for us. Because I always say that we can control everything as much as we can, bar the weather and the referee. So, it shouldn’t come down to a refereeing decision in the match anyway.”

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[ Final decision to be made on deployment of Hawk-Eye in All-Ireland hurling final ]

One of the prevailing issues in Galway’s win over semi-final was the errant performance of Hawkeye, the electronic score-monitoring system in Croke Park, which incorrectly displayed a clearly pointed free from Shane Walsh as wide. Joyce said the decision, just before the interval, did not bother them unduly.

“You get on with it. You only have 15 minutes at half time when you get in. You have a lot of your stuff pre planned, what you want to do when you go in anyways. It wasn’t disruptive. It would be worse if it was taken off you. If it’s given to you, it’s a bonus. As it stood we had it at 4-3 starting in the dressing room and coming we were 4-4. It was great to get it.”

He clarified post-match suggestions that Galway had considered not returning for the second half if the scoreboard had not been rectified to reflect Walsh’s score.

“That was never an issue whatsoever. We knew probably during our half time speech that the point was given and that it was rectified.”

Although Joyce acknowledged that the system is clearly malfunctioning at the moment, he does not see it as a priority as he prepares the senior team for a first senior All-Ireland appearance since 2001.

“To be honest I am not getting involved in it. I have a million things to do before Sunday. Again, its out of my control. Croke Park are the governing body. They look after this stuff and we have to trust it.”