Cork manager Pat Ryan has confirmed that his side will appeal a red card shown to Eoin Downey in his side's Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final defeat to Kilkenny.
The Rebels were well beaten by Kilkenny at Nowlan Park, losing 2-22 to 0-22 in a game in which they never led.
To rub salt into the wounds, Downey was shown a red card for his part in a second-half fracas which could potentially rule him out of his county’s Championship opener against Waterford on 30 April.
With Cork already trailing by six points midway through the second-half there was a flashpoint involving up to 20 players and when the dust settled, referee John Keenan showed yellow cards to Paddy Deegan and Timmy Clifford [Kilkenny] and Cork’s Robert Downey and Tommy O’Connell along with a red card for Eoin Downey.
The reason from the sending-off was unclear from television pictures and speaking to RTÉ Sport, Ryan confirmed that his side will lodge an appeal against the decision.
He said: "I think everyone saw that there was maybe 20 or 25 fellas inside it, so for one fella to be picked out and sent-off was very unfair.
"He might miss the Championship out of a league game for something very innocuous.
"We’ll be appealing that and we’ll see what we can get for that. We’ll have a look at the video and see if there’s any grounds for appeal."
The Sunday Game analyst and Limerick All-Ireland winner Shane Dowling believes that any potential appeal should be successful and he was at a loss as to the reason that Downey was given his marching orders.
"This shows nothing to us to suggest he should have got a red card," he said. "There was a couple of other camera angles but it still showed nothing to me.
"From my perspective, from what I have seen, he should not have got sent off. I saw nothing for that he deserved a straight red card.
"Unless John Keenan or his officials saw something else, that’s fair enough but on all known video evidence, if that’s what he got sent off for, that should be overturned straight away."
