Brian Gavin: Hurling referees adapting well to winter war

Colm Lyons gave another fine display in the Munster final, writes Brian Gavin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

It was a massive weekend for hurling but also as big a one for the officiating of it, given the questionable standard so far in this year’s Championship.

Thankfully, three of the established names came through with flying colours.

Colm Lyons gave another fine display in the Munster final. He really acquitted himself well and was spot on from when he called a third man tackle on Gearóid Hegarty in the third minute. The yellow card for Cian Lynch was justified as it was high. Lynch made another high tackle in the second half but on this occasion, the Waterford player was slipping so Lyons was right to give the benefit of the doubt.

Calum Lyons’s chop on Hegarty in the first half was also punished appropriately with a yellow card, and it was interesting to see him allow rucks to develop. To avoid the game being stop-start, I would give 30 seconds or more before deciding to throw the ball in. There is nothing worse than being finicky in those situations and Colm, fair play to him, waited to see if somebody would break away.

Although he is still adapting to his new style of officiating, Fergal Horgan performed well in the Leinster final on Saturday evening. Huw Lawlor was rightly penalised with a yellow card for excessive fouling. Fergal adjudged Conor Whelan was reckless more than dangerous with his loose hurley on Cillian Buckley and that was right. 

At times, he consulted well with the rest of his officiating team such as when a player was lying on the ball. He made a great call in booking Galway goalkeeper Éanna Murphy for a loose hurley on Richie Hogan. When Galway’s first-half indiscipline was off the charts, Fergal had no choice but to punish them.

On Saturday, James Owens was refereeing his first Liam MacCarthy Cup game and in awful conditions, he played good advantage and brought the play back for frees when he had to. Spotting the sliding tackle on Declan Dalton was sharp as was the yellow to Jack O’Connor for swinging out of his opponent. There was one harsh call on Robert Downey but James can be satisfied with his return.

In Portlaoise, Liam Gordan’s outing was more positive than his opening one, the Limerick-Tipperary Munster semi-final.

One glaring error was the time taken to book Joe O’Connor after he reacted to a foul by Tony Kelly. Liam spoke to two umpires and his two linesmen and the whole saga took about three minutes. Sure, his radio mightn’t have been working well, but the delay was terrible.

Liam also has a habit of blowing frees the wrong way and making calls against players who have just been fouled. Jack O’Connor and Rory Hayes were victims of that. At the same time, Liam made good judgment calls in booking Liam Óg McGovern and Shaun Murphy for off-the-ball incidents. Given the tension in the first 10 minutes, he could have calmed things down with a couple of yellow cards. 

It seems to me more people have been saying hurling needs to be let flow, but with so many swarms it’s difficult to do that. The tackle count has never been higher and a lot of is mistimed, clumsy or illegal so frees must be awarded.

In the Connacht football final yesterday, Seán Hurson made another big stride to establishing himself. He was right not to award Galway a penalty at the death and all he could do was give Eoghan McLaughlin a black for the blatant cynicism.