*Joe Cahill pleads with Conor Doyle
FOGGY CONDITIONS at the beginning of the second half in Saturday’s Munster club intermediate hurling final should have led to a delay in the restart, Corofin’s manager has argued.
Action commenced in the second half of Saturday’s final but only lasted for four minutes as the lack of visibility at a foggy Gaelic Grounds prompted referee Conor Doyle to pause proceedings.
This followed booing from the crowd and an intensely frustrated Corofin sideline to voice their concerns to the linesmen and fourth official.
What was initially planned to be a ten minute delay resulted in a pause of twenty two minutes to allow for the fog to part.
Speaking to The Clare Echo following Corofin’s six point loss to Castlelyons, Joe Cahill stated, “I thought the second half shouldn’t have started at the time, why not give it the fifteen or twenty minutes extra before starting it again. It was amazing that they started the game with that fog and then to haul it up after four or five minutes but that is the way it is, there was fog for both sides”.
When the referee paused proceedings, both sides retreated to the dressing room. Castlelyons emerged after ten minutes but a subsequent delay of twelve minutes to resume followed.
Managing this period in the dressing room was not easy, Cahill admitted. “It was difficult. They are a young side, people might think we were ranting and raving but we weren’t. We said we’d find a way around it and credit to the lads in the second half, they showed great resolve and we tapped away at a few points, we probably missed a few scores, we went for goals when we should have tapped it over the bar which would have brought it back to a four point game and anything could have happened then”.
On the restart, Corofin were the more efficient with scores. Of the fifteen subsequent points, they hit fifteen. “The opportunity came inside, it was more reflection than words being said, we said we’d try keeping working away and claw our way back into it, they are a great bunch of guys and we couldn’t fault them”.
