Former Dublin ace Hannah Tyrrell reckons that referee Maggie Farrelly was “absolutely spot on” in her decision to award a square ball against Kerry in the dying stages of yesterday’s All-Ireland ladies SFC final.

There was late drama at Croke Park as Síofra O’Shea free ended up in the back of the net, seemingly giving the Kingdom a 1-12 to 2-7 victory. However, replays showed that Kerry substitute Erica McGlynn was in the square prior to the ball arriving from O’Shea and Farrelly quickly awarded a free out to Galway.

Speaking on The Sunday Game, both Tyrrell and ex-Cork star Brid Stack felt that Cavan official was right in both major calls at Croker yesterday.

"Kerry are trying to fight their way back into it, not an awful lot of time left. Síofra is very capable of kicking these," Tyrrell told host Jacqui Hurley.

"For me, it’s clear, Maggie signals before the ball even gets into the goal that she is calling for a square ball. She gets this absolutely spot on.

"A Kerry forward gets into the square before the ball gets there, regardless of interference. Keeper does get a touch, but that doesn’t negate the fact a Kerry forward ended up inside the small rectangle."

On the advantage which looked to have penalised Kerry as they searched for an equaliser, the ref was correct as well according to 11-time All-Ireland winner Stack.

"Maggie had two fairly big calls to make towards the end of the game but they were the correct calls,” she stated.

"Maggie had the hand up for the advantage, there was a ball played across, was a fifty-fifty ball and Maggie deemed that the end of the advantage so she blew the whistle.

"The Galway players had all stopped around her, Síofra had clearly heard the whistle so it was the correct call. It was just unfortunate that it came down to two big calls like that at the very end."

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