Dara Bradley

WITH all the nervous tension and excitement and apprehension towards the end of Sunday’s pulsating All-Ireland final, perhaps it was inevitable emotions would run high and boil over on the sideline.

When Galway substitute Davy Glennon earned that late free, the one that produced the equalising score, Kilkenny manager Brian Cody was incensed. He didn’t – couldn’t – hide his anger.

He thought the Mullagh man went down too easily out under the Hogan Stand. He thought there was minimal contact with Jackie Tyrrell.

Cody couldn’t help himself. The James Stephens clubman had words with Galway manager Anthony Cunningham, who gave as good as he got; using the universal hand signal, moving four fingers up and down to the thumb, to suggest to Cody: ‘You’re all talk’. It was another memorable moment on a day filled with unforgettable moments.

Afterwards Cody was asked about the last free in the hope he might repeat some of the flowery language he directed at Cunningham on the sideline. No such luck. “It was a point, they scored a point from it so it was a very important score. That gave them the draw. I presume that’s what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Look it, I don’t referee the game, I don’t even have a good reputation as a referee, it seems, so the game happened. It (the free) will be blown up a bit because it was the last one but I’m sure there were different incidents throughout the game that I might have disagreed with, that Anthony Cunningham might have disagreed with but that’s the nature of the game,” added Cody.

Given all the talk from Cody about referees in the lead up to the final, he wasn’t going to be let off the hook that easily. Another hack pressed him further, the national media wanted a ‘Cody slams Ref’ narrative, and they went after it. Was it a soft free?

“Look, I saw it in a split second . . . we weren’t robbed in this game by a long shot. Galway scored the same amount as us and we scored the same amount as Galway, I don’t have any problem at all with the referee. He’s a tough job to do, I’m sure I made several mistakes out there and he’d be some man if he didn’t make mistakes. I’m sure every Kilkenny person thought it wasn’t a free and every Galway person thought it was a free, but the only thing that mattered was that (referee) Barry Kelly thought it was a free.

“Again, 81,000 people were there today and they were fairly excited and probably roaring and fierce passionate at that stage and surely to God the two managers are entitled to be excited. It happens every weekend at club matches – a bit of excitement, no big deal. We shook hands; I said ‘well done Anthony, see you in three week’s time’”.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.