John Meyler believes that the style of refereeing in Cork is affecting the competitiveness of the county's teams.
The former Rebel hurling manager was speaking on RTÉ during their coverage of a Cork SHC quarter-final double header from Páirc Uí Rinn.
"It's refereed differently," said Meyler.
Cork is refereed by the rules of the book. When I go to Thurles or matches in Kilkenny and it's a different game. They apply the rules here and that's just it. When you play in the Munster Championship it's totally different.
I think it is [affecting Cork]. The intensity of the game, the continuity of the game, the excitement is not there. I know the conditions were poor but there were two matches here last week that were stop-start as well and there was no flow.
Ex-Cork selector Kieran 'Fraggie' Murphy was also part of the coverage as Glen Rovers defeated Newtownshandrum and Imokilly beat Sarsfields in some poor conditions.
"You have to appreciate the time of year the Munster club is played," said Murphy.
"It's hard, it's physical and you need to be primed for that. If you're here and getting a yellow card for a flick across the hurley, you're not getting them in Munster club and you're not getting them in senior inter-county.
"It is a talking point here, you see it in the media a lot, it's a constant thread the journalists are putting out, the ease at which frees are given in Cork.
"Any club team going into Munster club, I know from my own experience going up to Kilmallock, Thurles Sars, it's hard-hitting and it's inter-county style refereeing.
"It's very hard to referee in the conditions. Contrast the first game and Nathan Wall left it flow a lot more. You would have heard Newtown fellas giving out that he could have given them a free there towards the end to level but he left it go and we'd a real exciting, hard-hitting game.
"Referees are under real pressure because they have accessors in the stand and if they're not meeting the criteria, ticking the boxes, giving the yellows as per the requirements they're missing out on getting games. It's something that needs to be addressed."
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
