Andy McEntee was unhappy with ref Derek O'Mahoney's call to show red cards to Meath duo Jack Flynn and Jordan Morris in the closing stages of the Royal's heavy Leinster SFC semi-final loss to Dublin.
Those dismissals rule both players out of Meath's opening qualifier and the loss of Morris in particular, who scored 1-3 against the Dubs at Croke Park, is a massive disappointment for McEntee.
"I was surprised with both of them," said the Royals boss after the 1-27 to 1-14 loss by his side.
"The truth of the matter is Jack Flynn, (Jonny) Cooper got a ball, turned into him and it might have been slightly mis-timed, but was it a red card? Hard to see it.
"And then I had a very good view of the second one, it happened right in front of me and Jordan Morris, yeah, it was ill-discipline but two hands on a guy's chest (Lee Gannon) and he goes down like he's been shot and the referee buys that and sends him off.
"I mean, there's been an awful lot more physical contacts than that out there today and fellas didn't lie down."
There are rumours that Davy Byrne and Robbie McDaid may not return for Dublin this season, but Blues boss Farrell struck a more positive note ahead of the Leinster final against Kildare in just under a fortnight's time.
"Davy has a knee injury so he's rehabbing at the minute," said Farrell. "We're hopeful and optimistic.
"We've picked up a couple of injuries throughout the year. At this stage you throw everything at it to ensure you have an injury-free list and as many players available to you as possible.
"We'll be working hard with Davy and with a couple of others that we had today as well to get them back in fray."
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