Brian Gavin: Injury to Munster final ref underlines need to support officials
Match referee Thomas Walsh is assisted to his feet by both team doctors, Dr Adrian Murphy, Cork, and Dr James Ryan, Limerick. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
The image of Adam English trying to help a cramping Thomas Walsh is one of the abiding images from Saturday’s Munster final.
It comes only a week after David Gough was forced to pull out of officiating the Down-Louth game with a hamstring problem. I won’t say referees are dropping like flies but the pains and bangs they are picking up is a symptom of the scheduling when games are coming so quickly after another.
Last year, we saw Johnny Murphy struggle physically in extra-time of the All-Ireland final and the demands being placed on inter-county referees are hitting new heights.
Remember, they are usually 10 to 20 years older than most of the players. In Walsh’s case, he is in his mid-30s but perhaps more importantly he does not benefit from the same gym programmes, strength and conditioning expertise, physiotherapists or nutritionist as the players.
So it was no surprise to see Walsh break down like he did in extra-time before the likes of Mark Coleman and Seán Finn were suffering cramp and then Darragh Fitzgibbon after his penalty puck.
Walsh’s only brand of officiating may have contributed to his inability to finish the game too. He only gave six frees in the first half and that style obviously lends itself to the ball being kept more in play and more running and more concentration being required.
He overcooked the flow of the game in Limerick. That’s not to excuse what the Cork and Limerick managements did what they did at half-time in approaching him. There is a way of talking to the referee when he calls an end to the first half but what they did wasn’t that.
In the second half, Walsh booked the likes of Gearóid Hegarty, Cormac O’Brien, David Reidy and Mike Casey as he exerted more control on the game. Cork felt they deserved a free before Shane O’Brien’s goal for Limerick and Cian Lynch was shoved in the back too.
Nobody wants to give up refereeing a first Munster final but in hindsight Walsh probably should have handed over the baton to James Owens for the start of extra-time. You could see he was limping around the time Brian Hayes’s shot was deemed wide but Walsh did show good sense in consulting with his linesman and umpires, which is something we haven’t seen in recent weeks.
Owens did extremely well taking the mantle from Walsh. To expect him to imitate Walsh’s style would have been wrong and he also had to work with four umpires who were not his own.
I wrote recently that Owens had rediscovered his confidence and has been doing a lot better in recent games than the past couple of seasons. Limerick were annoyed with the amount of time he played at the end of second half in extra-time but there were substitutes brought on and stoppages in the “at least one additional minute” signalled as Aaron Gillane stood over his free and he was right to allow Darragh Fitzgibbon’s free and 65.
On Sunday, Murphy reffed the Leinster final and it really wasn’t a test for him. He controlled the game well, gave the obvious frees and the bookings for Cian Kenny and Tom Monaghan were correct. Murphy is at the stage of his career when he would want to be examined in a provincial final rather than having an easy time of it but that didn’t come about.
With just seven games left in the championship and knock-out hurling from hereon in, things are heating up and it will be interesting to see if the powers-that-be will be favourable to Walsh for future appointments. Did he let too much go? He did. Seán Stack will surely come into the equation for the quarter-final not involving Dublin and Owens will likely be rewarded for finishing out the Munster final.
But I will finish with this, a drum I have been banging for several years now. Referees need more help. There have been some steps to give them the supports they need but they fall far short of what’s required. The hurling pool of top level referees is shallow and will continue to be shallow if more regional assistance is not provided.
Walsh is one of the best up-and-coming men in black. He has to be backed.
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