Former referee Barry Kelly reckons that there was “too much of a loose rein” in the early stages of Saturday’s Munster SHC final between Cork and Limerick.

Thomas Walsh was the man in the middle at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, where he’d be replaced by James Owens in extra time after suffering a cramp injury, and the first-half of normal time saw plenty of niggly scenes with both management teams clashing at half-time.

After the change of ends, Walsh dished out a series of cards but Kelly felt it was a move which should’ve perhaps happened earlier in the provincial decider which Cork went on to win on penalties.

"It’s like riding a horse, you have to let the horse know who’s in control and then you can loosen the reins a bit," the four-time All-Ireland SHC final referee said on the RTE GAA podcast.

"There was probably too much of a loose rein early on and it’s hard to pull it back then."

He added: "’Tyler’ (Walsh) probably thought he could go out and blow everything and end up with 40 or 50 frees and no one wants that.

"It’s about trying to get the balance and it’s a learning curve for 'Tyler.’ I had refereed Cork and Tipp back in 2004 in Killarney, it was my biggest game, knockout as well and Cork went on to win the All-Ireland – whoever won that game was probably going to go on and win the All-Ireland.

"I learned an awful lot that day in Killarney, the match was delayed and it was a hugely intense atmosphere, two teams in knockout hurling championship.

"’Tyler' probably went out and said ‘OK, I’m going to let this go’ because the alternative is to blow everything. Trying to get the balance right, even the throw-in was a bit chaotic at the start. Six frees like (in the first half).

"At half time, and I don’t know and I don’t want to be dissing ‘Tyler’ at all because he’s a fine referee and he’s a great fella, maybe Liam (Gordon), maybe James said to him at half time - there were four, five cards given out in the first six, seven minutes of the second half and seven or eight frees."

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