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Dublin ladies football manager Gregory McGonigle. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Not A Happy Camper

'I believe our ladies association have let us down' - Dublin boss fury over scoring decision

Gregory McGonigle saw his team lose out by a point in Croke Park this afternoon.

DUBLIN BOSS GREGORY McGonigle believes they were let down by the Ladies Football Association as he expressed his anger that the HawkEye score detection system was not used during today’s All-Ireland final in Croke Park.

Dublin fell short to Cork by a point but had a legitimate first-half score by wing-forward Carla Rowe waved wide by the umpires.

McGonigle revealed they were ‘shocked’ that HawkEye was not operational this afternoon and revealed that they will consider appealing the result.

“You obviously don’t want to come in here, making excuses for why we lost the game. Obviously, there are (other) factors. Possibly, a big one was our conversion rate of missed chances in the first half.

“But what I would say here is we preach all year about having equality and standards. If this happened next Saturday, we would be going to HawkEye.

“If you take down the posters of Sinead Goldrick and Briege Corkery and the other girls plastered around Ireland… if there was €1.5 million put into our association and if it cost 10 grand for HawkEye… youse guys are the journalists, youse know better than I do.

“If we are actually serious about ladies sports or do we just say ‘we do what we can do and if it costs us a wee bit extra money we don’t want to do it’. I genuinely want to say it’s nothing to do with Cork and from our point of view we believe Brendan Rice and his team of officials did a good job.

Molly Lamb dejected Dejected Dublin players after the game Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“But when we come to our national stadium to play I believe a young girl of 12 years of age growing up dreaming to play in Croke Park should be getting the same basics as the men get.

“Fundamentally, I believe our ladies association have let us down.”

McGonigle insisted that expense was not an acceptable excuse for HawkEye not to be used in ladies football.

“We just sort of talked about it inside there as a management. I think I saw something last year that it was too much money and if that’s what it comes down to, I don’t think we’re definitely skint.

“Put it on the flipside, 45 to maybe 60 officials spent a week in San Diego in the earlier part of the year. What do you think would be more important?

Sinead Goldrick dejected A dejected Sinead Goldrick after Dublin's defeat Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“We were shocked, I actually shouted on to the field to Lindsey Davey to challenge Brendan Rice and he came over and it was more or less a ‘no’.

“Then we challenged it at half-time when we were going in the tunnel to go to it and more or less [the reaction] we got from our association was a shrug of the shoulders.”

“Obviously, we have a county board. I just talked to our administrator Patricia Monaghan and we’ll obviously have a quick chat this evening.

“Again, this is not to take away from Cork. If there is a right there then I do believe we should be offered a replay.

“There’s possibly a loophole where they mightn’t be a replay.”

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Cork clinch All-Ireland six-in-a-row as Dublin suffer final heartbreak again

Controversy in Croke Park as Dublin ‘point’ waved wide by the umpire

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