Four-time All-Ireland hurling final referee Barry Kelly believes that Saturday's thrilling Munster final between victors Cork and Limerick required a firmer early touch to clamp down on some of the niggly scenes that accompanied the action at the Gaelic Grounds.
In a game ultimately decided by penalties, and saw referee Thomas Walsh replaced by James Owens in extra-time, the first half was notable for plenty of physicality but just six frees with the two management teams clashing as they both tried to approach Walsh as he made his way off the pitch at the break.
The third quarter saw a series of cards flashed by the match official, but Kelly felt that it was an approach that maybe should have been deployed earlier in the contest.
"It’s like riding a horse, you have to let the horse know who’s in control and then you can loosen the reins a bit," he told the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"There was probably too much of a loose rein early on and it’s hard to pull it back then."
"’Tyler’ (Walsh) probably thought he could go out and blow everything and end up with 40 or 50 frees and no one wants that," Kelly also said.
"It’s about trying to get the balance and it’s a learning curve for 'Tyler.’ I had refereed Cork and Tipp back in 2004 in Killarney, it was my biggest game, knockout as well and Cork went on to win the All-Ireland – whoever won that game was probably going to go on and win the All-Ireland.
"I learned an awful lot that day in Killarney, the match was delayed and it was a hugely intense atmosphere, two teams in knockout hurling championship.
"’Tyler' probably went out and said ‘OK, I’m going to let this go’ because the alternative is to blow everything.
"Trying to get the balance right, even the throw-in was a bit chaotic at the start. Six frees like (in the first half).
"At half time, and I don’t know and I don’t want to be dissing ‘Tyler’ at all because he’s a fine referee and he’s a great fella, maybe Liam (Gordon), maybe James said to him at half time - there were four, five cards given out in the first six, seven minutes of the second half and seven or eight frees."
It was a point also made by RTÉ GAA analyst Shane McGrath who pointed to how long it took for Limerick’s Aaron Gillane to get a shot at goal from a free.
"I know the players have great respect for Thomas Walsh, or ‘Tyler’ Walsh as everyone now knows his nickname after the weekend.
"He is very good with the players, the way he speaks to them and nowadays we are saying to refs ‘you have to let it flow’ and it’s that fine line between letting it flow and blowing for frees.
"I think I’m right in this, Aaron Gillane didn’t score a free until there was 52, 53 minutes gone in the game. And that wasn’t Aaron Gillane missing frees, there just weren’t frees given."
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