THERE WAS outrage following the final whistle in Ennis yesterday as Waterford felt aggrieved at a late decision.
Clare were awarded a 65 in the last minute of the clash which Mark Rodgers confidently struck over to secure victory for the hosts.
Deise boss Davy Fitzgerald was up in arms at the end of the narrow defeat and made his feelings very clear to the officials.
The Sunday Game panel were not impressed by the boss’ antics at full-time and insisted the umpire got the call ‘100% right’.
Donal Og Cusack said: “We’ve criticised officials a lot over the last while but even in slow motion I bet most people looking at this are finding it hard to see who the ball went out from.
“But watch Tadhg de Burca’s hurley. We’ve watched it a good number of times.
“We’ve been critical of the umpires in the past but in a high-pressure situation with a lot riding on that decision, fair play to the umpire.
“He got it a 100% correct.”
Neil McManus agreed with Cusack’s praise of the umpires but pointed out that the 65 was not taken where it should have been.
He acknowledged that it was ‘more of a 64’ and that it should have been corrected by the officials.
However, the Antrim man was unhappy with the aftermath of the game despite the contested finish.
McManus added: “Davy comes out and gets into Liam Gordon’s face. That really doesn’t help things and it fires people up.
“A Clare selector comes across and he actually pushes Davy and we don’t want to see these things because we love the fact that the fans can get onto the pitch at the end of the game.
“What an ending to last week’s game with the Cork fans you know getting onto the pitch and we don’t really want to see these scenes here to be honest.”
Cusack believes that the GAA will be forced to act if those kind of scenes continue and it will ruin the ‘powerful’ moments of fans celebrating on the pitch.
He slammed those involved by saying ‘that type of immature, childish behaviour will ruin it for everybody’.
Both pundits agreed that leaders and management need to take responsibility for the post-match antics.
GAA fans were also far from impressed after the ugly scenes unfolded and took to social media to voice their criticism.
One tweeted: “Davy Fitzgerald’s reactions are exactly why referees are not coming into the game. Who wants to put up with his kind of crap.
“Time to stomp it out. GAA need to act.”
Another added: “Unacceptable behaviour! This type of carry on will cause the end of the game…cos refs won’t want to ref and I certainly wouldn’t have kids looking at these fellas as role models!!
“They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Brings the game into disrepute IMO.”
A third said: “Davy has to get a nice ban for this. That’s disgraceful carry on.”