Liam Rushe says inconsistent refereeing led to Dublin's exit from the All-Ireland senior hurling championship this summer.

The two-time All Star cited Chris Crummey's early sending off against Cork at the start of the month as the reason they went down to the Rebels on a 1-26 to 1-23 score-line and disagreed with the decision by referee Paud O'Dwyer to issue the wing back two yellow cards.

"I was right behind it, I was the next man going in," Rushe told the Irish Daily Star.

"Look, there was nothing in it. We all know one of the major problems in the GAA is refereeing inconsistencies.

"Neither of Chris' yellows would have been yellows the following day in the Leinster final the way it was reffed. There was lads killing each other and there was hardly a whistle blown!

"It's just the way it is, you have to read the referee on the day and unfortunately Crummey's two fouls were very early and you could almost see it coming.

He added: "I don't know if I'm over it yet. It's the same old process you go through every year. It was misfortunate, wasn't it?

"Looking back, people are telling you, 'You were so unlucky' and I think by and large by how close we were a lot of people forgot that we were down a man for about 45 minutes.

"We fought as hard as we could and we were a few refereeing decisions away from a win."

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