It’s the pinnacle of every referee’s career — the All-Ireland final — and you want to match what is a marvellous occasion with an equally marvellous performance.

You so badly want people to see all the hard work you’ve put in and show them why the GAA have put that faith in you to be the man in the middle for the biggest occasion of the hurling championship.

James Owens went out to do all that yesterday, but it didn’t go as well for him as he might have wished.

From the first free when Pádraic Mannion was whistled for over-carrying, there were questions about his decisions. In that instance it looked like Mannion should have been given a free instead.

Over-carrying was a major talking point throughout the game and scores for David Burke and Cian Lynch should have been ruled out on that basis. Johnny Glynn was unfortunate to be pinged for challenging for the ball when it seemed to me like it was simply two physical men coming together.

It worked the other way against Kyle Hayes when he clashed with Joe Canning for an aerial ball. It was no free, but James gave it to Galway.

Gearóid Hegarty deserved his yellow card, but I didn’t feel Gearóid McInerney deserved one (never mind a free being given against him) when he went shoulder-to-shoulder with Seamus Flanagan.

In the second half, Aaron Gillane was rightly yellow-carded but I don’t believe Pádraic Mannion should have been. It was a free for a foul on Graeme Mulcahy alright but it was a harsh booking.

It was a poor call by James not to give a free to Daithí Burke for a foul by Seamus Flanagan at one stage. What could have been one of the biggest talking points — but thankfully, for James, wasn’t — was an obvious foul by Burke on Peter Casey. No free was given, Galway cleared the ball up the field and Conor Whelan ended up scoring a goal.

It should be noted that Tom Morrissey over-carried for his goal 17 minutes earlier. Pádraic Mannion, who was on a yellow, threw his hurley towards Shane Dowling when the Limerick man was scoring his goal but a second booking wasn’t forthcoming from James.

For Joe Canning’s free, from which he scored a goal, some Galway people would feel it should have been a penalty but it was the correct call for Nickie Quaid covering the ball.

After a couple of good All-Ireland quarter-final refereeing performances and two impressive ones in the semi-finals, excluding the replay, hurling officiating was on the up. Yesterday marked a dip.

I’ve good time for James, who’s a fine referee, but maybe Westmeath referee James McGrath will have more reason to be disappointed looking in on what happened.

In the minor game, Johnny Murphy was on the money for the penalty although he didn’t show a yellow card to Donal O’Shea for charging when he had shown one to Shane Jennings for the same foul, which was strange.

Some of the advantage calls were not long enough but he was correct to issue the yellow cards to Shane Quirke and Conor Kelly.

In the 50th minute, Johnny seemed to be writing down a score when his umpire was slow to wave a wide. It seemed to me that he had received information from a linesman. There were a few tough calls on Kilkenny for things like over-carrying in the end and overall it was a satisfactory if hardly outstanding performance by Johnny.

The identity of the All-Ireland senior football final referee should be revealed this week.

I have mentioned the merits of David Gough, who is for me the standout candidate. However, I hear Conor Lane is also in the running for the appointment, which would be his second final appointment after the 2016 draw between Dublin and Mayo.