Why Tipperary's scoreboard tally doesn't matter and what else we learned from the GAA weekend

Irish Times

6 days ago

The
controversy over the scoreboards
at Croke Park on Sunday recalled memories of a previous All-Ireland hurling semi-final, the 1998 replay between
Clare
and
Offaly
. It was abruptly ended with Clare ahead by three but referee Jimmy Cooney ended the match two minutes prematurely, treated as an abandonment, which triggered a re-fixture in accordance with the rule book.
Offaly ended up winning the next day out, as well as that year's All-Ireland final.
When it comes to refixing a match for erroneously awarded or disallowed scores, the rules are quite specific – it can't be done. This was tested early in the existence of the Disputes Resolution Authority, the GAA's independent arbitration tribunal.
The position on refereeing error is rather clear since the 2005 determination by the DRA.
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A football match in Limerick that year between Fr Casey's and St Senan's gave rise to a challenge from the former, based on a refereeing error in respect of a score. The ruling laid it out plainly:
'If Fr Casey's are correct that there was a mistake in this case and that it changed the outcome of the game, then one must have sympathy for them. However, even if they are right on both of these issues, this cannot allow for an erosion of the principle of referees' control.
Tipperary's Noel McGrath after his 70th-minute effort, mistakenly recorded as a point on the scoreboards at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
'How an error at any particular stage in a game will affect the outcome is something of an imponderable, and the fact that injustice will occasionally result from a blanket protection of referees' decisions is a consequence that must be borne by all. It is the lesser evil.'
The only exception is if 'a referee is shown to have had an improper motive amounting to a corruption of his role as an impartial arbiter of fact and rule'.
There have been scoreboard errors more recently. Just two years ago the display recorded that Carlow had beaten Offaly by 2-29 to 1-31 in the Joe McDonagh Cup final. The correct score was 2-30 to 1-32 but this did not affect outcome.
In 2016, Meath were actually awarded the Christy Ring Cup after their final score, 2-17 to Antrim's 1-20, had been incorrectly recorded as 2-18 to 1-20. After consultations with the GAA management committee, Meath reluctantly agreed to a re-fixture, saying in a statement: 'Asking us to replay a game that we firmly believe we won last Saturday is very disappointing.' However, the county won the re-fixture 4-21 to 5-17.
Sunday's issue was not so much the validity of a score – Noel McGrath's phantom 'point' in the 70th minute – but the effect on
Kilkenny
of believing they were now chasing a four-point rather than a three-point deficit.
Green-eyed
Tipperary
When Liam Cahill took over as
Tipperary
manager three years ago, scoring goals was high on his manifesto. In his successful years with age-grade teams in Tipp and during his time in Waterford, it had been a discernible pattern. When Tipp's under-20s won the 2019 All-Ireland final under Cahill, they blistered Cork with four goals in the opening eight minutes. Four years later, in his first championship match as senior manager against Clare, Tipp scored five.
'I think from an entertainment point of view too, I think it's nice that you have games with goals in them,' said Cahill on that glorious day in Ennis. 'Spectators need that. While it's lovely to watch fellas picking off points from 70 or 80 yards it can become a bit monotonous at times. We practice it. I won't tell you any different, we do practice it.'
In Tipp's next game against Cork, they scored two goals, but then their goalscoring fell off a cliff. In their next seven championship matches, they scored a combined total of just three, including four blanks.
Darragh McCarthy celebrates scoring Tipperary's second goal against Kilkenny. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho
The storming resurgence in Tipp's form this year has coincided with the rediscovery of their goal touch. The two goals they scored against Limerick were they first they had scored against those opponents during Cahill's time in charge, and if you omit the Cork game – where they played with 14 men for 70 minutes – they have averaged nearly three goals a game.
On Sunday, they clearly targeted the Kilkenny full-back line and went for goals from the start. In the first half alone, they created six goalscoring opportunities and converted three. In contrast, Kilkenny failed to score a goal for the first time since round two of last year's Leinster championship.
'When you concede four and you know if I was asked before the game if we hit 30 points I would have said we wouldn't have been too far off,' said Derek Lyng after the game.
On Sunday, nothing mattered more than goals.
– Denis Walsh
Righ
t
man for
t
he job
Wherever the
Dublin
hurlers go from here, it feels certain they have the right man to lead them. That might sound like an overly generous assessment of Niall Ó Ceallacháin when his team has just shipped a 20-point beating in an All-Ireland semi-final but you'll spend a long time looking if you're trying to find a Dublin hurling supporter with misgivings.
Ó Ceallacháin didn't put a tooth in it afterwards on Saturday night. He rattled off the three competitions Dublin entered in 2025 and was up front about the fact that they didn't make the final of any of them. They came third in Division 1B, which saw Offaly and Waterford promoted to 1A. They lost to Kilkenny and Galway in Leinster and so didn't make their provincial final. They were wiped on Saturday.
Niall Ó Ceallacháin after Dublin's semi-final defeat to Cork. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Of the three, walking face first into the Cork windmill was clearly the most forgivable. How a team can fail to get out of 1B in the spring before beating Limerick in the summer is a bewildering show of inconsistency. And yet, a familiar one. Job number one for Ó Ceallacháin in 2026 will be eradicating that tendency towards hot-and-cold performances.
He's not the first Dublin manager to have that at the top of his to-do list. He does at least have the innate steadiness to suggest a future that is about more than one-off big days.
– Malachy Clerkin
Reid's s
t
ill go
t
i
t
TJ Reid was the last player to leave the pitch at Croke Park on Sunday. After his Kilkenny team-mates had shuffled down the tunnel, Reid remained on the pitch with his daughter, Harper. Wearing Ronan Maher's Tipp jersey turned inside out, having swapped at the final whistle, Reid spent several minutes playing with Harper and walking around the pitch with her in tow.
He's 37 now and the end of Kilkenny's season will naturally raise questions as to whether we will see Reid back in black and amber in 2026. His legacy as one of the greatest players of all time is already guaranteed and again on Sunday he raged against the dying of the light.
Kilkenny's TJ Reid with his daughter Harper after the semi-final defeat to Tipperary. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho
It was Reid who won possession from Paddy Deegan's hit-and-hope boomer down the field in the final moments of the game. Reid came out from a forest of bodies with the ball, shimmied away from some Tipperary tackles and offloaded to John Donnelly, creating what appeared to be a match-saving goal chance only for Donnelly's shot to be saved on the line.
Reid's accuracy from placed balls was also a significant factor in Kilkenny amassing 0-30 – he finished the game with over a third of their scores, 0-11 (eight frees and one 65). His long distance free-taking was superb.
So, there seems little doubt Reid – who made his Kilkenny senior debut in 2007 – could still operate at the highest level next year if he so chooses, but, as with all players, there are many other factors to be considered.
Whatever way it plays out, it has been a pleasure to see him in full flight.
– Gordon Manning
Fu
t
ure focus
Tyrone's production line rolls on, showing the sort of alacrity and can-do spirit that would make some Chinese factories look like havens for layabouts. Sunday's All-Ireland minor final victory over Kerry means they've done the underage double in 2025, having tidied away the under-20 title in May.
Scroll back through history and you'll find this is only the sixth time the minor and under-20/21 double has been done. Kerry did it in 1975, Cork in '81, Tyrone themselves in 2001, Dublin in 2012, and Cork again in 2019 were the others. Take out the most recent Cork one and you're looking at the launch pads for all four counties' greatest football eras. Those doubles didn't guarantee senior success but they fairly added to the tide.
Tyrone's Peter Colton celebrates after scoring a goal for Tyrone against Kerry in Newbridge on Sunday. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
It's Tyrone's fifth All-Ireland minor title since the turn of the century, allied to their sixth under-20/21 crown. Omagh CBS have won two of the last three Hogan Cups as well. Throw in last year's Sigerson Cup win for Ulster University, which featured nine Tyrone players in the final, and it's clear that Malachy O'Rourke isn't going to run short of options any time soon.
All that's left for them in 2025 is for the senior team to get past Kerry on Saturday and then see off either Donegal or Meath in the final. Simple! If they somehow manage to pull it off, it would only be the second time in history that any county has completed the treble in one year. You have to go back 50 years for the other one – Kerry in 1975.
Those lads did all right, you might recall.
– Malachy Clerkin