Refs face undue pressures

This past week, we had managers ahead of an All-Ireland final and semi-final telling match officials how to ref games. It’s an approach I hope is discontinued.

It’s a tactic used by managers to put pressure on referees to look out for what they feel are their issues.

Mayo manager James Horan gave prominence to the idea that Joe McQuillan had been refereeing Dublin’s internal games. On Saturday, national referees committee chairman Pat McEnaney clarified that he hadn’t take charge of one of their A v B games in the last two years.

Yet this was allowed to develop over the last few days in print and in other forums.

Last weekend, Brian Cody made comments about how he feels Kilkenny have been depicted wrongly and what type of game he hopes will be allowed to form by referee Barry Kelly in Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final. He also mentioned the shouldering at the start of games, which football referees have long dealt with and doesn’t happen as much anymore.

I hope after next Sunday Cody’s words have had no bearing on the result of the game.