SUGGESTIONS GALWAY WERE not going to return to the field until the HawkEye decision to rule out Shane Walsh’s 45 was overturned last weekend are inaccurate, according to manager Padraic Joyce. 

During Saturday’s semi-final, the score detection technology ruled a Walsh ’45 wide late in the first half. Replays clearly showed the ball going between the posts and the point was awarded before the start of the second half. 

Galway GAA chairman Paul Bellew and football board secretary Padraig Kelly went to the referee at half-time to discuss the issue, but Joyce insists they were always going to play. 

“No. This is where headlines come from and what ye guys like. I spoke to our secretary going in at half-time and said, ‘look, that point’s after going over the bar.’

“I said go on and ask the question, ‘should it be a point,’ and they did. But there was never a debate. A headline that we weren’t coming out, we were always coming out. We were. That was never an issue whatsoever.

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

Meanwhile, it was confirmed this week Tyrone’s Sean Hurson will referee the All-Ireland final. The Galbally Pearses club man hails from the same club as Kerry coach Paddy Tally. 

“I only heard it there this morning,” explains Joyce.

“We’ve had Seán here, we had him in a league match this year with Derry. I think he was a fourth official that day. The referee at the time, I think it was Noel Mooney, couldn’t do the game. He pulled a hamstring in the warm-up or something.

“Seán took over. And we had Seán here in the Connacht final, where Seán Kelly got pulled down. I’d a few words that day with him about it but again, I know there’s a bit of talk about Seán and all that kind of stuff.

“But to me, I think it’s a great honour for him. A great honour for anyone to be in an All-Ireland final. 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. It shouldn’t come down to a refereeing decision in the match anyway.”

Joyce referenced Kildare’s Brendan Cawley, who was the referee for last Saturday’s fixture and comes from the same area as Galway selector Cian O’Neill as an example of a similar situation.

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

“I’d known that and I knew he was in line for the final. 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 is 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. 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.”