It’s time we blew the whistle on abuse of refs
I spoke to a nice man in Elverys in Limerick City yesterday. He told me that the standard breed of referee’s whistle used to control GAA games, and produced by Elverys themselves is called The Rival and still costs a mere €4!
For what becomes a lethal weapon when the chips are down and the blood heated up at club or county level that has to be considered very good value in today’s terms.
But what sane man or woman would want to avail of it today?
At this calmer end of a spirited season surely we should all take a few minutes out to pay tribute to the hardened corps of GAA referees who, through thick and thin, in hail rain or sun, Sundays and weekdays, voluntarily, for the love of their sport, put a Rival between their lips even if it sometimes means taking their lives in their hands.
On any given day about 50 per cent of a typical crowd vilify and heckle and boo the referee on duty. Sometimes a significant percentage drive ourselves into a crazy belief that the referee is totally biased against our team. We accuse
referees of being either blind or mad or both. Often enough the intimidation from hot-blooded players stops just short of physical assault. A notebook, for example, can be slapped out of a ref’s hand. They are often jostled and verbally abused by both players and spectators. We’ve seen striking examples of that at the top level this season. There is not a senior Garda in the entire island who has not joined with stewards to escort referees safely off the field at the end of torrid games. Not just once either, but several times.
A referee’s life is a tough one and it is not getting significantly better. We should be more grateful to them for filling a crucial role in the association. That gratitude should be powerfully expressed more often.
Without them there would be no games at all!
And have there not been signs in recent seasons that the intake into the ranks of referees has slowed down almost as much as the intake into Maynooth? We could be approaching an era when referees will become as scarce as priests in half-parishes. As the voluntary commitment becomes more demanding (especially because of the sharply increased pace of all games) and as society changes, there is at least anecdotal evidence that the flow of apprentice refs is drastically slowing down.
That is not surprising at all. Volunteerism is declining at about all layers of our increasingly selfish society. It is a modern reality.
Yes our amateur referees do make mistakes. That is a mortal thing. Referees in all codes make mistakes and sometimes very serious ones. Well paid professionals who take charge of Premiership soccer clashes across the water, for example, probably make more, and more serious errors, than our top GAA officials. That incredible series of events which led to the Nani goal for Manchester United being allowed at the weekend proves the point.
It also reveals the cruelty of the Ref’s dilemma in several codes.
Apparently the Nani goal decision was the correct one according to the letter of the law. But it flew in the face of communal commonsense. It is in this area of the exercise of commonsense that GAA referees too are caught often on the horns of the dilemma. Split second decisions allowing advantage, for example, create awkward moments and baying crowds.
In GAA, also, the whole tackling area has always created major problems for referees and players both. Fair and unfair tackling is something which needs much more acute definition than exists at present. And, unlike soccer, our football game features points-another area of contention. Even with the assistance of umpires (are they properly positioned?) valid points are frequently miscalled at all levels.
Yet, despite all of these difficulties it is hugely to the credit of GAA referees that they fulfil their voluntary roles to the best of their abilities at least 99 per cent of the time. If they get a few euros for travelling and subsistence is that not the least they are entitled to? If I had my way they would be recouped, too, for the massages many of the senior ones must require for aging legs trying to keep up with the play on Sunday and still having to turn out for the day job on Monday morning.
Joe McQuillan of Cavan was in charge of the titanic struggle between rugged Crossmaglen and fiery Saint Gall’s in the Ulster Club SFC in Oliver Plunkett Park on Saturday. Any referee would be in the position of being in a lion’s cage as the outgoing All-Ireland champions and Crossmaglen tore into each other from the off. There was passion and there was pride and, in fairness, almost all the exchanges were on the legality borderline.
Joe McQuillan had to issue no less than three red cards and eleven yellow ones and award two penalties before it ended with a Crossmaglen victory. Under the dour circumstances he did a great job. He fully earned the price of his beef and two veg before heading home at the end of the day.
Our unsung amateurs like Joe McQuillan deserve a lot more respect and a lot more gratitude than they get. We should remember that and react accordingly.
