Tyrone will wait apprehensively to see whether the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee deems incidents from the county’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat of Monaghan worthy of further investigation.
As the teams left the field at half-time there were a couple of altercations with Monaghan’s Dessie Mone, one of which saw Martin Penrose red-carded immediately on re-arrival on the pitch for the second half.
Experienced defender Conor Gormley was also seen raising his hand to Mone and it remains to be seen whether the CCCC decide he has a case to answer. According to the GAA there will be no decision taken until today at the earliest, given yesterday was a public holiday.
Meanwhile, Monaghan’s Darren Hughes has criticised match referee Cormac Reilly from Meath, who booked Hughes in the 17th minute after he had cleanly dispossessed Cavanagh.
“I told him (Reilly) to wait 10 seconds and look at the screen, maybe they are not allowed to, but I knew I’d got the ball,” said Hughes.
'Vendetta'
"It shouldn't have affected me but Cavanagh got three points off me after it and I am disappointed about that. It did frustrate me and I did have a bit of a vendetta towards the referee after that.
“Cormac Reilly is a disaster most of the time but that’s what you’re up against. He won’t be back in Croke Park this year, I don’t think. We were in a great position but decisions went against us at crucial times.”
Reilly correctly issued a yellow card to Cavanagh after his rugby-style tackle denied Conor McManus a goal-scoring opportunity in the 49th minute.
Hughes refused to blame Cavanagh for taking down his team-mate. “It was a blatant goal opportunity and next year that is a man [sent] off but there is no point whingeing about it. If I was in Seán Cavanagh’s position I’d have done the exact same thing myself.”
Finally Croke Park announced yesterday that Wexford’s James Owens will take charge of next Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Dublin and Cork.
The second semi-final between Limerick and Clare the following Sunday will be refereed by Johnny Ryan of Tipperary.
The GAA also announced that a special semi-final package to cover both All-Ireland semi-finals involving Dublin has been made available.
The package covering next weekend’s hurling semi-final between Dublin and Cork and Dublin’s football semi-final against Kerry on September 1st costs €65 (stand), offering a saving of €15. Terrace tickets for both games are available for €40 and children can access the Davin and Cusack Stands for both games for €10.
These packages are available through normal outlets including gaa.ie, Centra and SuperValu stores.
