Henry Shefflin Feels GAA's Handling Of Kilkenny-Tipperary Error Let Players Down

While Tipperary's performance in yesterday's All-Ireland final will be the main memory from this year's championship, there is no doubt that their semi-final victory over Kilkenny is something that will go down in infamy for many GAA fans.

Controversy would erupt in the aftermath of that game, with it emerging that there had been an error on the Croke Park scoreboard in the closing moments of the match. It had been thought that Tipp held a three-point lead in injury time, but it would turn out that they actually only led by two points.

The result of that error was that Kilkenny went for goals in the closing stages when a couple of quick fire points would have been enough to send the game to extra-time.

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There was a huge amount of discussion around this error in the days after the fixture, although the GAA seemed to remain largely quiet on the matter. Kilkenny conducted themselves brilliantly throughout, not making any public complaints about the matter.

However, some feel that it would be an error if this incident was to be quickly forgotten.

Speaking on The Sunday Game, Henry Shefflin hinted that the players involved in this game were let down by the authorities.

We are all GAA people and stand or what the GAA has been all about, the professional nature that is has become as an organisation.

But for this incident to happen in an All-Ireland semi-final at a critical moment was something that shouldn't have happened. I hope there will be learnings from it.

The wide was given, very clear. The decision making after that then, Kilkenny think they're four points behind instead of being three...

The impact on those players that have given nine months training, and a scoreboard in a professional setup with 80,000 people was something that shouldn't have happened.

We always take about players and that Cork have learnings to take from today, the GAA have learnings (from this). The communication around it has been something that's a bit baffling to all of us, because we discussed it in advance.

There hasn't been much noise about it and it seems like it has just moved on. I think it's very important that the GAA and the decision makers are sure in the process around that.

The time and effort that the players and management put into this is paramount that at least the score is absolutely correct.

Kilkenny would certainly have a right to feel aggrieved as a result of this error, while the GAA have not exactly been forthcoming in discussing the incident in a public forum.

It will be interesting to see if they address it now that the championship has come to a close.