Kildare boss Glenn Ryan has claimed his team did not receive fair treatment from officials at Croke Park for their Leinster Championship semi-final defeat to Dublin on Sunday afternoon.
The Lilywhites had Dublin by the pin of their collar for the majority of a game that the Boys in Blue survived with just two points to spare having trailed by as many as four.
Late in the game, Ryan and his selectors Dermot Earley and Anthony Rainbow appeared to get involved in a minor confrontation on the sideline with Dublin selector Darren Daly.
After the game, Ryan told GAAGO that the playing field at Headquarters may not quite be a level one and seemed to suggest Dublin were favoured by officials on and off the pitch. He then went on to say his feelings were shared by "most of the rest of the teams in the country".
Leinster chiefs moved Dublin's National League games to Croke Park in 2011 to help cater for the sizeable crowd that follows the 12-in-a-row provincial champions.
"It's frustrating from the point of view that - I suppose everyone gives out about the Croke Park thing - but you come up here and you don't get a fair crack of the whip," Ryan said.
"Well, there's fellas walking up and down one side of the official and nobody can do anything down the other end. Fellas standing in my so-called box and my own officials being told to get out of it and there's somebody from the other side [in it]."
When Raheens sharpshooter Paddy Woodgate drilled over a '45 in the seventh minute of the second half, Kildare were largely in control of the game and led by four points, 0-10 to 0-06. Dublin would outscore their neighbours by eight points to two over the remaining 30-odd minutes of play, however, to set up a Leinster final clash with Mickey Harte's Louth in two weeks' time.
Ryan bemoaned some 50-50 calls that he felt didn't go his team's way late in the game. "There's sideline balls not given, a fella tripped up in front of the goals, wasn't given," Ryan claimed.
"It sounds like sour grapes but I know I'm reflecting the views of most teams around the country that everything is laid out here [for Dublin], number one, from a familiarity perspective, from a games perspective and, you know, everything else seems to go their way as well.
"Sure we'll play anywhere, but you want to play anywhere when it's fair. And there wasn't anything glaring, nothing glaring. There were calls went either way, but when you look at stuff that goes on on the sideline and the dressing-rooms and all that, you know, it's all wrapped up in it."
