James Owens is an absolute joke lads. He ties himself up in knots in every game by going for the controversial 'brave' decision in his own head... one of these refs that loves the limelight. He then gets the sense he might have made a balls of it and it all goes to pot then. He's over-picky for senior championship hurling, and drives huge frustration with all the teams. The penalty decision last year. The Eoin Cody red card this year.
Yesterday he was poor for both teams... don't know how the Clare goal at the end was disallowed or how Hogan fouled Connolly before the Hoggy free - he didn't. I know most on here disagree but for me, the body check by SOD is a free and not a second yellow. There's also a black card / penalty lunge by Rory Hayes (when he's coming back up off the ground) on Horgan... I hate lads on here whinging about referees but this is more about a ref that is consistently below the standard for some time and still getting big games. I really don't understand it. We have only ourselves to blame for the 2 defeats but 2 soft reds in 2 weeks has killed us.
The difference in the next game is going to be unreal. Gordon or Thomas Walsh will leave all of that picky stuff go, whether that suits us or not let's see.