‘I couldn’t believe that he was refereeing the game’

There's a refreshing candour about Ashling Thompson and it's a combination of things. It's her nose ring and her tattoos and her fearless opinions. It's that she's unafraid to make a statement, and reluctant to lie low and politely kick tetchy issues to touch.

Cork’s camogie captain is unapologetic about a few things. The women’s games need to sort out their referee appointments and she doesn’t understand why there was no Hawk-Eye at the disputed All-Ireland final between Dublin and Cork. It is, she says, hurting the game.

“I just can’t understand how it [Hawk-Eye] wasn’t provided. The appeal probably won’t happen, there won’t be a replay,” she says. “I just can’t figure out why it wasn’t decided before the game. They have to sit down next year . . . it will be there, but it’s too late now.

“Putting myself in the Dublin girls’ shoes, if that was me in that situation I would be extremely frustrated. There should have been an agreement to have Hawk-Eye because one point made all the difference.”

Two weeks ago Cork played in the senior final and, she says, the appointed referee had virtually no experience of that level of camogie. Officials will ask how referees can acquire experience if they are not put into tough matches.

Dubious appointments

But Thompson draws the line between competence and inexperience and maintains that there are enough matches around to test-drive referees. She questions how seriously they take the women’s game if they make dubious appointments in key matches that queer the pitch and determine outcomes.

"We played two weeks ago with a referee who had never refereed a senior final before," she says. "We played Wexford in the last group game in the championship and that was his first-ever time refereeing [a] senior camogie game.

“I just can’t understand how the man got it. I actually got sent off on the day [All-Ireland final]. My first yellow was fair enough, I’ll say that, but the second looked ridiculous on television.

“You can’t put a referee out there who has never refereed at that level before. We don’t even ask questions as to why, there’s no point, because we won’t get any answers.”

As Thompson sees it, there is a respect deficit for the women players, which is not evident at the top of the men’s game. She believes there is a lack of forethought in making appointments, or an indifference to the need for a high standards of officiating.

Either way she finds it unacceptable.

“I was angry myself, I couldn’t believe that he was refereeing the game.

“He had really messed up in the last game in the championship in Wexford Park. So to give him the final it felt like it could have been purposely done to upset us. I’m not sure how Cork felt, but I’m not afraid to give my opinion.

“I thought he made an absolute mess of it. Fair enough, throwing him in for the group stages, that’s fine. But come the All-Ireland final, you need a referee with experience that has been in front of the cameras and knows that kind of pressure.”

For now the club championship and Milford’s semi-final in a couple of weeks occupy her thoughts. She believes Cork will stay largely intact for next summer and that teenager Hannah Looney’s pre-match handshake kerfuffle in Croke Park didn’t deserve “the desperate” social media abuse she received.

Again, Thompson has her own point of view.

“I think in general you shouldn’t be shaking anyone’s hand before a game,” she says.

There are many who would agree.