The All-Ireland semi-final between Galway and Mayo ended in drama on Sunday afternoon. Galway progressed to just their fourth ever All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship final with a one-point win. The decisive score came via a Rosín Leonard free kick with 85 seconds left on the clock.
It momentarily appeared that Mayo would have a chance to equalise with time almost up. After Leonard's score, Mayo worked the ball up the pitch with the referee seemingly awarding a free kick for a foul on Rachel Kearns on the edge of the square.
However, once Kearns had recovered, it emerged referee Seamus Mulvihill had actually awarded a free to Galway. Kearns had hopped the ball twice en route to goal.
Speaking to RTÉ after the game, Mayo manager Peter Leahy alleged that the referee made that decision with the aid of television replays.
"Well, first of all, she was fouled well before the contentious issue," said Leahy.
She was fouled twice: on the way in and very deliberately when she was through on goal.
What happened was the fourth official said to me, 'Peter, you're not going to like this, we're hearing from upstairs that there have been two hops'. We then changed that situation where it became, 'Oh, the umpire called it' - the umpire didn't call two hops, I can tell you here and now, he didn't - it was done from upstairs.
The referee had given a free and he changed his mind because of the television upstairs. There's nowhere in the book that says you can change your mind from the television upstairs. If we're going to go down the VAR route, we're going to have to seriously look at it, aren't we?
They changed their mind and told me it was the umpire that did it. It's very easy to do that, and it's very easy to change your mind on that. I'm not calling anyone a liar but I was told it was done from upstairs.
The LGFA rejected Leahy's claim, saying that the referee made the call without the use of TV replays.
Leahy, who did not deny that Kearns had fouled the ball, also said that he felt Mulvihill had awarded the free prior to the infraction by his player.
"He'd given a free before the two hops and then pulled it back because of the two hops," said Leahy.
"He put his hand up for a free and then the second hop [happened]. Regardless of the second hop and regardless of the television, it's still a free."
You can hear Leahy speaking on Morning Ireland.
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