BRENDAN CUMMINS has defended the time-keeping in the Munster hurling final – and laid out exactly why it was “spot on”.
Cork claimed a first provincial title in seven years following an enthralling penalty shoot-out win over Limerick on Saturday.
The Treaty men were on the way to the seven in-a-row before Darragh Fitzgibbon notched a 65′ that sent the game to the shoot-out.
That set play was taken 3:45 at the end of extra-time, despite there having been just one minute of additional time signalled.
This scenario was criticised by Limerick boss John Kiely, who called it “difficult to understand”.
Kiley said: “We felt that there were three minutes gone.
“It’s hard to find three minutes of added time in a ten-minute half.”
However, speaking on the Sunday Game, former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins insisted substitute referee James Owens was right to allow play to go on.
Outlining why, he explained: “It was two minutes and 25 seconds before the game restarted and that time was allowed.
“And then you bring it forward to Aaron Gillane’s free, there is 83 minutes on the clock and ball from Gillane goes over the bar. He (Owens) blew for half-time.
“And then at the end of extra time, you can see James Owens in the middle of the field pointing out clearly one minute of additional time to his officials.
“Shane O’Brien is then fouled by Damien Cahalane, we are just under the 90 minutes.
“Cahalane gives away the free but behind all that Cian Lynch gets a head injury and he needed attention, so he had to leave the field of play.
“It took one minute for Cian Lynch to get off the pitch.
“Aaron Gillane looks around at the referee and says ‘am I ok to go (take the free). We still have one minute to go.”
Cummins then pointed to the late Darragh Fitzgibbon free, which went behind off of Limerick stopper Nickie Quaid for the critical 65′.
Cummins added: “Before the free, the referee did not tell him that this was the last puck of the game.
“The important piece here is that, and I didn’t realise this until I spoke to a number of referees today, the rulebook states that ‘if it goes out for a 65 you must let the 65 be taken’.”
The conversation then cut to the rule itself.
It reads: “Should the defending team commit a further foul before the referee whistles for full-time, the Referee shall further extend the time to permit an additional free to be taken, from which a score can be made, provided no other player of the side taking the free touches the ball.”
Cummins added: “The distinction here is, if that free went into the square and there was a foul on a Cork player, the free would be given.
“If there is a 65′, it is counted as a free puck of the ball, but if Nickie Quaid got that and drove it over the sideline, it is not seen as a lifting strike action or a free so the play would have been blown up.
“To be fair to the officials they got the timing right in the game, the timekeeping was spot on.”
