After Kilkenny beat Offaly in a Leinster semi-final in 2007, he said that referees were “being screwed” by an assessor “up in the stand, with a pen and a bit of paper, ticking, ticking, ticking boxes.”It was a theme that Cody returned to again and again. On Saturday night O’Connor addressed the issue of players being penalised for hurley contact with an opponent’s helmet or faceguard. “That isn’t even a yellow card. “They shouldn’t be a yellow card,” he said. “Some of them aren’t even a free, not to mind a yellow card.

Source: The Irish Times February 09, 2026 14:38 UTC