GAA receive fault report from Hawk-Eye

By Michael McMullan

THE GAA have confirmed that a full report into the issues relating to problems with the score detection technology in use in Croke Park last weekend has been received from Hawk-Eye.

It made the headlines after Derry had a Conor Glass effort ruled out, with “Nil” appearing after the Croke Park big screen depicted the flight of the 17th minute shot coming inside the post.

Then, before half time, referee Brendan Cawley’s officials raised the white flag on a Shane Walsh ’45’ that took Galway back to 0-4 to 0-3. Hawk-Eye then ruled out the score that clearly went inside the post.

From Odhran Lynch’s kick-out, the only on Derry lost in the first half, Galway replied with a Damien Comer point to leave a the bare minimum between the teams at the break.

Croke Park officials and Brendan Cawley were in consultation at half-time, deciding to reinstate the point and Galway began the second half on level terms at 0-4 all, a decision Derry manager Rory Gallagher didn’t have any problem with.

In an interview with Galway Bay FM, Galway Chairman Paul Bellew revealed that representation was made to the officials at half time with indication the Tribesmen would fail to appear for the second half, if Walsh’s ‘45’ wasn’t investigated further.

Galway went on to hit 1-3 without reply on their way to a final with Kerry later this month.

Hawk-Eye was stood down for the second half and for Sunday’s clash of Kerry and Dublin, which was decided by Sean O’Shea’s monster injury-time free that curled inside the same post Shane Walsh’s kick did in Galway’s win over Derry.

“A combination of unrelated issues, including minor hardware failures, led to an erroneous finding for a score towards the end of the first half of the first GAA Football semi-final, which was promptly queried by match officials who subsequently took the decision to award the score,” outlined a statement released by Croke Park on Wednesday.

“Full end to end testing of the system will take place this week, after which a final decision will be made as to the deployment of the system for Sunday’s GAA Hurling Final.

“Hawk-Eye have also confirmed that there were no historical issues with the system and that the problems experienced relate to last Saturday only and specifically to the Hill 16 end goal for that specific moment in time.

“The GAA is to undertake a full review of its own protocols relating to when and how the system should be stood down if similar challenges are to arise in the future.”