Tipperary are out of the football Championship, suffering a two-point defeat to Armagh in Thurles. The end of this game was less SempleGate than a bolt for the Semple exit gate: referee Paddy Neilan was escorted from the pitch having been subject to confrontation by an irate Tipperary fan.
Neilan made a number of very strange decisions regarding the advantage rule, which ultimately led to the disallowing of an Armagh goal and the awarding of another, while Tipperary were also denied a clear goalscoring opportunity when Phillip Austin was whistled to a stop as he was bearing down on goal.
After the game, Liam Kearns criticised two elements of the referee's performance, while also magnanimously saying that Armagh deserved their victory, and that he was in no way implying that the referee cost his side the game.
That said, he did take issue with the referee in two respects. The first regarded diving: Kearns took issue with Neilan's on-pitch assertions that Tipperary players had dived on numerous occasions. Kearns accentuated Neilan's hand gestures indicating so in his post-match interview with Sky Sports' Damian Lawlor:
My players don't dive. They just don't dive. So that was a huge issue for me. I think there were eight frees, maybe more over the game, and all I could see was that [mimicking diving hand gestures]. My players don't dive, so I have an issue with that.
Also, I thought the advantage rule just wasn't used. It just wasn't applied. I don't know why that was. And that was for both teams. Look, the referee didn't cost us the game, and I don't want to say that he did. Armagh were the better team, they won the game and I want to leave it at that.
Kearns' two-year term as Tipperary manager is up, and he told Sky Sports that he will talk to the various stakeholders in Tipperary football and his family before deciding on what to do next, asserting that the decision made would be in "the best interests of Tipperary football".
Having reached an All-Ireland semi-final last year, and earned promotion to Division Two this year, it would be extremely surprising if he does not continue.
See Also: Watch: The Sublime Jamie Clarke Goal That Sunk Tipperary
