SHANE DOWLING SAYS the actions of a member in the Waterford hurling camp towards Limerick’s Gearóid Hegarty during their Munster SHC meeting was “absolutely disgusting”.
Footage of the game showed someone from the Déise backroom team make contact with Hegarty following a high challenge on Waterford’s Conor Gleeson which prompted a fiery clash between both sides on the sideline. Hegarty was dismissed from the game with a second yellow card while the Waterford member was also sent off for his actions.
“Things spill over,” Dowling began while discussing the incident on the Sunday Game Highlights show in the company of Ursula Jacobs and presenter Jacqui Hurley.
'Someone running from the dugout to hit a player a dig is absolutely disgusting as far as I'm concerned' - The panel assess the flashpoints in Semple Stadium #SundayGame #rtegaa pic.twitter.com/j1qsbnotBL
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“We all make mistakes, but this lad, I don’t know who he is. I don’t like him smiling there as if he’s done something right. He actually ran to go down and hit Gearóid. There’s no place in the game for that.
“It’s Munster championship; things are going to get heated. Gearóid got sent off, Séamus had a high challenge. There were other things there as well, that’s going to come and go, and it’s part of championship hurling.
“We’ve got to understand that. But somebody running from the dugout in to hit a player with a dig is just absolutely disgusting as far as I’m concerned.”
The Sunday Game panel also discussed a separate incident where Limerick’s Séamus Flanagan escaped punishment over a high challenge on Stephen Bennett. Jacob said Flanagan was lucky not to disciplined over the incident.
“He can probably count himself lucky here he didn’t receive any card,” she said. “He comes in late [with a] high challenge on Stephen Bennett. I think Gearóid Hegarty can’t have any complaints over that one on Conor Gleeson.”
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