McQuillan: I said there's 30 seconds left, not another play
Referee Joe McQuillan has defended his handling of the final moments of last Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final between Dublin and Mayo at Croke Park.
Mayo needed a goal in deepest injury-time to keep alive their hopes of lifting the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time since 1951, however Cillian O'Connor decided to point a late free having discussed the amount of time left with McQuillan.
O'Connor's eighth pointed free of the day put the minimum between the sides at 2-12 to 1-14 but following Stephen Cluxton's kick-out, the Cavan match official swiftly blew for full-time and the Dubs could begin their celebrations.
Speaking after the game, Mayo captain Andy Moran was adamant that McQuillan had told O'Connor there would be enough time for another attack.
"At the end, Cillian had a free, the ref tells him there's 30 seconds left, and then he blows it out from the kick-out," explained Moran.
"It's a bit of a pain in the arse, to be honest with you, but hey, these things happen.
"Cillian is an intelligent guy, a very intelligent footballer. He asked the ref how long was left, he (the ref) said 30 seconds and (then) he blew it up."
TV footage of the game showed that Mayo substitute Enda Varley won the close-in free with 73:28 on the clock. Four additional minutes had been signalled for and by the time O'Connor put the ball between the posts, the clock had moved on to 74:10.
That gap in time would suggest that O'Connor should have much quicker in taking the free, which was from just outside the 20-metre line, and his lack of urgency was another instance of poor decision-making from Mayo on the day.
It seems that the confusion over the time left stems from O'Connor's short discussion with McQuillan before taking the free, but the referee reckons he could not have been any clearer.
He told the Irish Independent: "There was absolutely no suggestion that it would be after the kick-out or anything like that. I simply said 'there's 30 seconds left' and that was from the moment he asked me.
"I said it three times, I'm sure plenty of players heard me and I was on an open mic to all my match officials, including Dickie Murphy who was the overseer on Hawk-Eye, so all of those can confirm what I said.
"Immediately after the game, some Mayo players said to me that, 'you said there was going to be another play', but I never said that because there is no such thing as that."
McQuillan insisted: "I can't tell a player to go for goal or anything like that, I can only tell him how much time was left and that is exactly what I did.
"If the ball had gone out for a '45', I would have had to allow that to be played, but otherwise there was 30 seconds left on the clock.
"The player took some time to take the free and when I blew the final whistle there was 74 minutes and 39 seconds on my stopwatch."
