'There should always be a replay in an All-Ireland final'

July 24, 2024

Cork manager Pat Ryan. ©INPHO/Tom Maher.

Pat Ryan believes All-Ireland finals that finish level at full-time should go to a replay.

The Cork manager has called on the GAA to reconsider the use of extra-time to decide drawn All-Ireland finals after his side were edged out in an extra-time thriller by Clare last Sunday. When the same two counties drew in the 2013 All-Ireland final, it went straight to a replay, but the rule was changed following the introduction of the split season.

“I didn’t want to get into it during the week, but there should always be a replay in an All-Ireland final,” Ryan told reporters at the Cork team hotel in Dublin on Monday.

“Even from the commercial side of things, even from the personal side of things, to have a replay.

“It becomes a lottery (in extra-time). We had fellas going down injured, we lost players during the game. Clare lost players – Shane O’Donnell and Peter Duggan went off. We lost Rob Downey, Seamus Harnedy and Niall O’Leary.

“A replay would be the fairest, but look, they were the rules coming into it, we had planned for it. But going forward, I think it’s a thing that the GAA should change.”


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