“I wouldn’t even comment on these guys any more,” said the Limerick senior football manager of the performance of referee Padraig Hughes after the All-Ireland qualifier.
“I don’t know where they get them, but you have to accept whatever the referee says,” he said begrudgingly.
A minute into injury time, with Limerick trailing Meath by a single point (2-9 to 1-13), centre-back Stephen Lucey gathered possession and fired what the Shannonsiders considered to be the equalising point. Incredibly however referee Padraig Hughes penalised the Croom man for over-carrying the ball.
“I’d like to see it again, but I don’t think he ran that far,” said Mickey Ned of the free given against Stephen Lucey.
Another hotly-contested decision was that which saw just two minutes injury time was played even though the game had been delayed for three minutes (between the 64th and 67th) when a Limerick player had received medical attention and a Meath man, Stephen Bray, had been sent off.
“Someone told me that Micheal O’Muircheartaigh said on the radio that there should be five minutes and I felt the same that there was much more than two minutes - the longer it went on we were getting stronger and stronger and our tails were up.”
While clearly annoyed by the refereeing decisions Mickey Ned O’Sullivan admitted that his side didn’t play to their potential.
“Meath found scoring easier than we did,” he recalled.
“They took scores that we didn’t - we had to work that bit harder for whatever scores we got and that was the difference. We are not taking away from Meath - Meath took their scores easily and we worked very hard for scores and that was the difference. That comes from playing a higher standard of football for higher periods and they are used to that intensity and used to creating space and able to support each other.”
Since Limerick lost to Cork in the provincial final the Royal County had qualifier wins over Westmeath and Roscommon.
“It could be a factor that we didn’t play for over a month,” said the Limerick manager.
“It took us about 20 minutes to get into the game and it was only 10 minutes before half time that we were up to the pace of the game and I think that was because of the long lay-off.
“I think we lost the game in that time when we didn’t get into the pace of the game.”
Limerick were slow to start while another first half criticism revolved around the amount of possession that was spilled by the team.
“We were taking the ball in and losing it in the tackle - I think we rectified that at half time. We turned the ball over 17 times in the first half alone - we were bringing the ball into the tackle and we were losing it.”
Mickey Ned explained: “Meath play a physical type of game - Cork were different. Cork play more football, Meath will come in and get a pound of flesh every time. Meath are a strong team and they were hitting us hard and we weren’t used to that.
“It’s disappointing, but there were are pluses. There was four of that forward line under-20 so there is a good future if they stay at it.
“We won a lot of respect for our game, but respect doesn’t boil the pot. You need a win to make the break through and you need to get the luck and you need to have referees being objective.
When asked about the future, Mickey Ned replied: “For the players they are young, Mickey Ned is not young. They will bounce back.
“These lads have enormous character - they play football because they enjoy playing football. They would be out tomorrow evening playing football if they were asked. For us the bottom line is that we are out of the championship.”
When asked about his personal future Mickey Ned said: “This is not the time for decisions. Whatever decision I make is irrelevant because there are 12 guys in this management structure and whatever way it will be a collective decision. There are 12 people in our management team - I am only the spokesperson.”
“It’s hard to think of next year.”
Jerome O’Connell
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