HawkEye is unlikely to be in operation at Páirc Uí Chaoimh for any stage of this year’s provincial or All-Ireland championships.
Speaking last month, stadium director Bob Ryan confirmed the score-detection technology would not be operational at the venue ahead of Cork’s two Munster SHC games there, and has now revealed it won’t be active for the Cork-Kerry Munster SFC final on June 23 and is doubtful for any potential All-Ireland quarter-final matches.
Last Saturday, Cork captain Seamus Harnedy gestured for HawkEye to determine whether a shot was good or not after an umpire had waved it wide.
However, unlike in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-finals, the service was not available.
“We’d be taking instruction from Croke Park,” said Ryan. “It was only put in for the hurling quarter-finals last year. We have heard nothing about it yet.
"We do have fibre optic cables in the stadium, but the installation of HawkEye, I would imagine, is a separate issue and is controlled by HawkEye.”
Meanwhile, referee Alan Kelly will again be in action the weekend after next when he is standby referee/linesman for the Clare-Limerick Munster SHC Round 5 game in Cusack Park.
After Sunday’s controversial Limerick-Tipperary encounter, the Galway match official will be manning one of the sidelines in this Saturday’s Kilkenny-Wexford Leinster SHC Round 5 affair in Nowlan Park, where the winners will face Galway in the provincial final.
Kelly will assist Wexford’s James Owens in the clash in Ennis and John Keenan of Wicklow, the man in the middle for the Waterford-Cork game in Semple Stadium that same afternoon.
Elsewhere, the GAA have refused to be drawn on whether they support Sport Ireland’s (SI) determination to obtain the home addresses of inter-county footballers and hurlers for the purposes of intelligence and home drug tests.
Last week, SI director of ethics and participation Dr Una May intimated the GAA were on the same side as SI when she discussed negotiations about ascertaining the addresses: “Ourselves and the GAA left that meeting under the impression it was going to happen, but the GPA (Gaelic Players Association) have since appeared to renege on that decision.”
A GAA official said yesterday: “The GPA and SI are currently in the process of trying to resolve the issue and we won’t be commenting until such time as they do.”
By John Fogarty
GAA Correspondent - Irish Examiner
