Think that's very harsh to say he swung it for Galway.....to be fair the way he reffed the game suited Waterford far more with their swarm tackling and use of the other hand....you have highlighted two instances but the hauling and dragging from some of the Waterford backs was unreal, dud Coughlan physically hit a ball all day???? Every game he plays he seems more interested in mauling and holding his opponent than trying to play hurling
I personally thought the referee had a terrible game. There were fouls galore and he refused to give frees for most of them. As usual you have the "let the game flow" brigade out in force, all let it flow means is a referee decided not to give frees where frees were warranted in the hope of an entertaining game. To me, I'd like to see a game refereed according to the rules. If the GAA doesn't want that, then they need to take lots of the rules out of the rulebook and let the two teams rip into each other.
The way the game was refereed suited Galway more than Waterford. The referee was not biased at all, but letting frees go unpunished suited Galway better. For a start, Galway are a bigger, more physical team than Waterford. But more importantly, the Galway style of play suited a lawless game far more than Waterford. Waterford's game relies on interplay a lot, short passing, running with the ball. This couldn't happen. Brick Walsh went on a few runs with lads hanging out of him. In the second half there was a great example where Gleeson went on a run around the 45 and was fouled several times, only for it to end up a Galway free. In comparison Galway don't rely on interplay, rarely run with ball and don't pass short; they go long, try to win ball one-on-one and shoot from distance. They aren't looking to play the ball into full forwards, aren't looking to take anyone on and don't look for goals at all. Their forwards just win ball in isolation and shoot. Far fewer opportunities for Waterford to dispossess them through fouling.
It was a pity that the refereeing, or lack of refereeing, of the final leaves an asterisk over the game for me. Paul Flynn was on the radio last night and said more or less the same thing, even name-checking Brian Gavin's refereeing style of previous finals. The All-Ireland is reffed totally differently than every other game. It shouldn't be.
Replying To bricktop: "The rules of hurling no longer are a true reflection of the game as we now see it and its been that way for quite a while now.
Lets call them half fouls, are let go all the time now, the tugs, the spare arm across the man, head high hurls around the neck, the overcarrying, the dodgy handpassing and so forth. This has been the case since the cats upped the "intincity" ala Tyrone in the football and with Cody intimidating every official who dared to blow them up for it and "taking the manliness out of hurling". The rest have got up to speed in this regard now and we have what we have which IMO can descend into bunching like we saw a few times yesterday where its near on impossible to decide who's fouling who so we let it go unabaited.
Not sure what the answer is, but I'd prefer it to some of the feigning we see in the big ball. Can you image the face holding and rolling about if a footballer had taken the hit that John Hanbury got from Kevin Moran? Hanbury was right back up on his feet within seconds."
"Intincity"? Didn't know Brian Cody was from the wisht?
Thought he had a good game. He didnt have the benefit of seeing the replays like we did, but in general he got most of it right. Galway benefited by way of a a point from a slanted throw in due to a ruck. These rucks are the scourge of hurling. But most of them occur when Waterford are playing. Waterford players constantly jumping into rucks to maintain the ruck.