Mayo manager Frank Browne lamented costly yellow cards but accepted that his side were second best in their All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin.
Goalkeeper Yvonne Byrne was the first to go to the bin after dragging down Sinead Aherne in the large square – though sub netminder Aisling Tarpey saved the Dublin captain’s penalty.
Mayo were then reduced to 13 just before half-time when Rachel Kearns fouled Noelle Healy. Orla Conlon was shown a third yellow 52 minutes in.
Browne wondered aloud afterwards whether comments ahead of the game by Dublin counterpart Mick Bohan that Mayo star Cora Staunton knows "how to get her frees" and "how to intimidate referees" had affected referee Seamus Mulvihill but said it had only served to sharpen his team’s focus.
"We’re just extremely disappointed," Browne told RTÉ Sport.
"We’ve no complaints (but) some of the decisions around the yellow cards were interesting to say the least. I’d like to have a closer look at them again in terms of the free count and foul count (19-15 in Dublin’s favour).
"I wonder was the referee got to with all the stuff that was going on during the week but fair play to Dublin, they won the game and fair play to them.
"Some of the comments about Cora intimidating referees, for not just an icon of Ladies Gaelic Football but of Irish sport, I think it was a little bit over the top.
"We know Cora and we know the sports person she is, and how humble she is about the whole thing. I don’t think it put Cora off her game by any means, she’s too much of a professional to allow something like that, but it probably wasn’t really in the best interest of the sport.
"If anything, it probably gave us a little bit more ammunition. We tried to keep ourselves away from that kind of thing and we were just focusing on coming here, playing our game and trying to win a game of football."
For his part, Bohan said afterwards that he regretted his choice of words and was relieved the controversy hadn’t affected his team’s performance.
"When I spoke to people, I was having a football conversation. I didn’t throw it out there to influence the referee," he said.
"I suppose what I was trying to say, was to talk about game management and if I used the wrong terms … Anyone who has ever dealt with me in sport would know that is not the way I do my business.
"If you take a full conversation and put it out there, it represents the topic better. But if you take parts of a conversation and put them out there, it does not represent what the topic is about.
"It did hurt me and I was concerned that it would hurt the group. And that was a bit of a weight I carried over the last few days. But I will learn from it."
Mayo were three points behind at half-time and the gap was the same margin with eight minutes on the clock, before Dublin hit them with a late barrage of goals – two from sub Sarah McCaffrey and one from Carla Rowe.
Browne felt the final scoreline of 4-11 to 0-11 was more indicative of his team chasing the game than a gulf in class.
"I think the scoreboard flattered Dublin a little bit and I don’t mean that in any way as a disrespectful way to great All-Ireland champions," he reflected.
"We had a little bit of dominance, certainly in the first ten or 15 minutes of the game but we just weren’t reflecting that on the scoreboard at all.
"Dublin’s scores seemed to be coming that bit easier and then they set up really well. They defended really well and the couple of sin-bins really killed us because it allowed them to double up and break out at speed.
"We had a decision to make with ten minutes to go, we were a couple of points down and a player down and do we go and die with our boots on and try and win this game or sit back? We went to try and win the game, left holes at the back, the couple of scores went in."
For Bohan, victorious in the first season of his second spell as Dublin manager, there was a feeling of relief that a series of missed goal chances hadn’t cost his side and that they avoided the agony of losing four finals in a row.
"You’d have to be thrilled for them," he said. "They didn’t just represent themselves today but it was the groups of the last number of years, even going back to our own group in 2003. We are very proud of them.
"We were concerned, because we had created a huge number of opportunities. They had two girls in the bin and we weren’t punishing them at that point in time.
"Ultimately in an All-Ireland final, you wonder if you are going to continue to create those opportunities. But thankfully they stayed in the moment, there’s no point in pondering things that have gone, particularly in big games like this.
"They stayed and played the game play by play, minute by minute and fortunately for us we eventually punished them."
