All-Ireland camogie final Justin Heffernan got the big calls right and tried his best to allow for a free-flowing encounter, according to RTÉ analyst Elaine Aylward.
Galway prevailed by the bare minimum at Croke Park on Sunday to deny Cork three in a row, Carrie Dolan's late free from distance the difference between the teams at the death.
After the game Rebels manager Ger Manley hit out at the official’s handling of the game, describing the performance as "shocking".
Manley insisted the first-half sending off of Hannah Looney was "harsh", was unhappy that a clear push on the back of goalkeeper Amy Lee, which resulted in a Galway point, was missed and also disputed Dolan’s match-winning free.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, former Kilkenny player Aylward conceded that the push on Lee was a "no-brainer", but the other two big calls were correct. The 2009 All-Star highlighted a couple of instances where the Tribes were denied a couple of frees themselves and that over the course of 64 minutes, it was a fair performance by Heffernan.
"In a one-point game, you are always going to look back on the obvious ones, ones that could have gone either way, but over the course of the full hour, I think he got the big calls right," she said.
Also speaking on the podcast was four-time All-Ireland winner with Wexford Ursula Jacob.
She agreed that the referee had a good game overall, and given the free-dominated finals of 2017 and 2018 involving Cork and Kilkenny, there was an effort on Heffernan’s part to avoid a game dominated by placed balls.
"I understand the frustration from Cork and Ger Manley," she said. "Galway were probably aggrieved last year with a goal that was very lucky – it probably wasn’t a clearcut handpass - I think Justin was trying to allow a free-flowing game.
"I’d hate if we were here talking about a game that was all frees."
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