Mayo loss shows GAA referees need assistance

In last weekend’s GAA All-Ireland football semi-final, Mayo were robbed by at least two close-in frees and a penalty that shouldn’t have been awarded to Kerry, and by frees that should have been awarded to Mayo. It wasn’t the referee’s fault. He was unsighted, and suffering from fatigue and cramp towards the end.

The fault is in expecting referees of end-to-end football and hurling games played on long pitches to see what happens at both ends. The solution: the referee should stay in the two middle quarters and put the onus on goal umpires to tell him — with modern technology — who is infringing in the other two quarters.

It is unfair to referees, spectators and players (who, with their families, clubs and divisional and county boards, put thousands of hours, colossal amounts of exertion, and hundreds of thousands of euro into preparation over many years) to have outcomes determined by unsighted referees.