die "Ack!  That's no reference. IT'S A MAN BABY\n" unless(ref $firstRow eq "ARRAY);

##</code><code>##

use strict;

my @AoA;
push @AoA, [1..40] for(1..20);

print ref $AoA[0]."\n";
print "".(ref $AoA[0])."\n";
print $AoA[0][1]."\n";

Producing (correctly): 
ARRAY
2

##</code><code>##

for(1..$rows)

##</code><code>##

print ref $obj->{AoA};

##</code><code>##

print ref $obj->{AoA}[$row];