The Cork County Board have claimed that their senior footballers would most likely be in the All-Ireland semi-finals if not for a “totally wrong refereeing decision”.
A week after the departure of football manager Brian Cuthbert, the county board decided to thank the former manager for his efforts, while referencing the referee's decision, as well as the "exhausting" conditions and the short turn-around of the Munster final replay.
That 'wrong' decision that the board are referring to came in the Munster final drawn game between Cork and Kerry when referee Padraig Hughes awarded the All-Ireland champions a controversial penalty when Mark Collins was adjudged to have fouled James O’Donoghue.
The statement, released this afternoon, stated: “The Executive of Cork County Board would like to express its sincere thanks to Brian Cuthbert for his two years at the helm of the Cork Senior Football team.
“Brian made great strides with a largely new-look team playing excellent football, and steered them through two successful Allianz League campaigns which saw them top the league in both years, reaching the semi-final in 2014 and the final in 2015.
"The 2015 campaign was particularly arduous given that it involved an unprecedented four trips to play Ulster teams away.
“The tremendous performance of the team in the drawn Munster final has been widely acknowledged, and it is quite probable that but for a totally wrong refereeing decision in that game, Cork would now be in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“The short turn-around time between the replay, played in exhausting weather conditions, and the qualifier game against Kildare, cannot be ignored as a factor in that defeat.”
