ANTRIM HURLING MANAGEMENT and officials are this evening reviewing footage of the Christy Ring Cup final following suggestions that the game may actually have ended in a draw instead of a Meath win.
A late 1-1 from Meath substitute Sean Quigley appeared to secure victory for the Royal County in their first ever final, guaranteeing their place in next year’s MacCarthy Cup.
However, all members of the written media as well as a number of Antrim backroom staff recorded the full-time score as being 2-17 to 1-20, a draw.
Issues regarding the correct score appear to stem from the scoreboard being incorrectly updated after Niall McKenna’s 63rd-minute point for Antrim, which should have put them 1-20 to 1-15 ahead but wasn’t properly accounted for.
There are suggestions that a point was awarded to Meath in error at this stage which wasn’t corrected, resulting in a one-point win.
It’s understood that a DVD of the game was made available to Antrim afterwards by TG4 who carried a live transmission of the final.
Speaking afterwards, Antrim manager Dominic McKinley, who is heading up an interim management team, said that at the very least it was a bad mistake to put the wrong score up on an official scoreboard during what was an All-Ireland final.
The GAA stated after the game that match referee John O’Brien was satisfied that 2-18 to 1-20 was the correct scoreline, a Meath victory. However, Antrim may seek to pursue the issue depending on how they interpret the handling of the game.
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