Galway GAA chairman Paul Bellew says that he and football board secretary Paul Kelly spoke to referee Brendan Cawley at half-time of Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final against Derry regarding a Shane Walsh point which was wrongly disallowed by HawkEye.
The duo told Cawley that unless the situation was rectified, Galway would not be returning to the pitch for the second half.
Late in the first half, Walsh kicked a 45 well inside the right-hand post at the Hill 16 end. The umpires signalled for a point but Hawkeye subsequently called it wide, and it was chalked off. When the teams emerged for the second half, following discussions between officials, the score had again been added to the Galway total.
Galway chairman: 'The referee was superb'
"We were very lucky at the timing of when it happened, just before half-time," Bellew told Galway Bay FM.
"I got the clip [of the ‘45] and it was straight down to the referee’s room with Padraig Kelly the football secretary.
"In fairness, I thought the referee was superb. He was like, 'Lads, we are aware, we are looking'. They communicated very well. We just made the point that we won't be back on the field until we know it is rectified.
"It was going to be resolved anyway, but we just had to be on top of it to make sure it did occur. They were going to work on it, you just have to play the game a little bit."
9 July 2022; Referee Brendan Cawley calls for a HawkEye judgement after Shane Walsh of Galway kicks a point. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
The GAA issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the problem with Hawkeye was isolated to the Shane Walsh score, and that there have been "no historical issues with the system".
It was added that testing will take place this week, and a decision about its use for this weekend's hurling final will then be made.
Is there a problem with HawkEye? Shane Walsh's free late in the half was deemed wide by the technology at Croke Park, but the replay would suggest otherwise
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