O’Neill says sorry to Treaty for Hawk-Eye ‘wide’

LIMERICK chiefs have drawn a line under last year’s Hawk-Eye controversy after a formal apology from GAA president Liam O’Neill. The county’s minors were denied a legitimate point during their All-Ireland semi-final tie with Galway which finished level after normal time. Hawk-Eye ruled that a legitimate Barry Nash point for Limerick went wide, though company officials subsequently admitted that the system had been set up incorrectly. Despite the admission, a Limerick appeal to the Disputes Resolution Authority wasn’t successful and Galway contested the final with Waterford. Limerick GAA chairman Oliver Mann wrote in his end of year report that the county had ‘neither seen or heard an apology to the players’. But it finally arrived on Sunday evening when O’Neill (left) conveyed his ‘huge regret’ to players while attending a medal presentation. ‘I do regret it and we do apologise for it and we are deeply sorry for it,’ said O’Neill. ‘It’s not easy to have to say but that’s the way it is. ‘I must say, and it’s not easy to stand here and say this, that it’s a source of huge regret to us that it worked out the way it did,’ continued the association’s president. ‘We went to enormous bother to get Hawk-Eye. Quite frankly we spent a fortune on it to get things right for players, just so what happened that day wouldn’t happen. ‘It shouldn’t have happened. The person [from Hawk-Eye] didn’t configure it right and it’s a source of huge regret to us and a source of huge regret to me personally that it happened to this Limerick team because I felt I got to know a bit about Limerick hurling during the summer,’ added O’Neill.