By Jackie Cahill

Cork manager Ephie Fitzgerald has insisted that there is no chance of a replay of yesterday's TG4 All-Ireland ladies senior football final - and says it's "rich" of Dublin to speak about the absence of HawkEye when he knew that the score technology system was not in operation.

Controversy surrounded the final result as Cork won by a point, with Dublin protesting that Carla Rowe's 22^nd-minute score was wrongly chalked off.

Dublin officials are meeting this morning (Monday) to discuss the possibility of an appeal but latest indications from the Sky Blues camp suggest that they are unlikely to proceed with one.

And Fitzgerald, speaking to Neil Prendeville on Cork's Red FM, insisted: "There won't be any rematch."

When asked about Dublin manager Gregory McGonigle's post-match comments, when he called for a replay, Fitzgerald replied frankly: "He can say what he likes to be honest about it.

"Gregory's very quick to talk but as far as I'm concerned, we're All-Ireland champions and that's that.

"They were on about HawkEye and what not (but) I don't believe their penalty was a penalty and we could have had one earlier on.

"You take the game on its merits - there are two umpires and the referee has two linesmen.

"If they said the ball was wide, then you have to take…we've lost matches over the years, I know myself, with decisions like that.

"The fact that there's no HawkEye there isn't down to us, that's down to the powers that be. There won't be any rematch, from my knowledge, and I asked yesterday.

"I asked the LGFA and there's absolutely not, no. The referee's report is final and that's that. It's over.

"I haven't seen it (Rowe point) but you just have to suck it up obviously.

"They've lost their third final in a row and that's very disappointing for them but that's outside our control, we get on with what we do. Dublin kicked 16 wides yesterday, they have to look at themselves."

And while McGonigle claimed that he didn't know that HawkEye was not in operation, Fitzgerald insisted that he was in no doubt.

He added: "We all knew HawkEye wasn't available - that's been the case all year.

"You know going out that you're not going to have the use of HawkEye. So talking about HawkEye should be in use afterwards, to me, is a bit rich.

"I was fully aware that HawkEye wasn't going to be in use, so the fact that they should or shouldn't use it is down to the powers that be, it's irrelevant to us.

"The dynamics of the game change anyway. If we were three points up yesterday coming down the stretch…if there were 30 seconds left when the ball came into the square for the penalty, that would have been a different scenario.

"You just can't compare like with like. We were two scores up so it didn't really matter what they got at that stage. If it was a three-point game, we probably would have been a little bit more focused.

"The bottom line is the scoreline says that Cork won the All-Ireland by a point and that's all we're concerned about."

 

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