Meath selector Mickey McCullough says that the Meath management team informed referee John O'Brien that there was an error with the scoreboard during the now-infamous Christy Ring controversy on Saturday.
McCullough told RTE's Jones' Road podcast that the Royals' selectors were informed that TG4 were displaying a different scoreline from the one on the scoreboard and, via the sideline official, made O'Brien aware of this, but O'Brien replied that the Croke Park scoreboard was "correct".
We had asked the question and we were told the score is right. So we played the game that was in front of us.
And as far as McCullough is concerned, his side did all that could be expected of them in trying to resolve the issue.
When you are asking an official, that’s really the end of it. They must check that with another official and we did...even after [the incident] it never dawned on me [that something was wrong] because there was no running on to the pitch from Antrim to contest with the referee or anything.
McCullough thinks that a potential Christy Ring Cup final replay would be an "empty game" which "nobody would care" about and seemed to confirm reports that players from both teams are heading off to the USA in the coming days.
I know Antrim players are going on holidays this week, are off to America; I know Meath have players heading to America-sure it wouldn’t even be the same two teams playing.
Interestingly, McCullough doesn't actually believe it's a completely positive outcome for Meath that as it stands they progress into the Leinster quarter-finals next season. He thinks that a match-up against a far stronger side like Kilkenny or Galway is the opposite of what the county's hurlers need in order to "build" on their 2016 campaign.
Meath aren’t ready to move into a Leinster quarter-final...(it would be best) if Meath could move on to the next stage, go into the round-robin and hold their own in there for two or three years.
As for this year, it looks like McCullough will have to try and re-motivate his charges for another clash against his old county, with GAA President Aogan O' Fearghail saying on radio this morning that the (probable) finding of a draw by the Central Competitions Control Committee will mean a replay of the final.
