They don’t let the game go like they used
It’s an art though that has changed through the years. Back in the day, yellow cards were only for soccer; you could decapitate an opponent and the worst you’d incur was the man in black getting all Cyril Farrell or D’Unbelievables with you — “You can’t be doing that, lads!” — so mindful were they of the fate that befell John Gough after he got all John Wayne by sending off four men in the 1983 All-Ireland.
But what really distinguished the masters from the pretenders was the art of playing for the draw.
There was no quicker way to ingratiate yourself with the powers-that-be than give them another payday; no better way of getting yourself another big game than to give everyone else another day out.
Some refs would go to extraordinary lengths. Teams were given eight minutes added time to get their equaliser. Other refs would blow up early if the sides were level. It wouldn’t matter if the ball was sailing over the bar; the ref was safe in the knowledge there would be a general consensus that “neither side deserved to lose”.
The practice was best encapsulated by an exchange in which only the game and participants are disputed, not the sentiments. A player lining up a free with his team down a point asks, “How much time is left, ref?”
To which he’s told, “Score and it’s all over. Miss and there’s another two minutes.”
But that was back when there was no fourth official, no clock board, no backdoor.
Nothing illustrated how much the art of refereeing has changed than Cormac Reilly’s decision to award Bernard Brogan that free on Sunday.
Before the turn of the millennium, I wrote an article arguing that teams were being denied the right to win championship matches by a point. The game’s integrity was being sold short too. Soft frees were being awarded; obvious frees at the other end, denied.
It was best illustrated by the proportion of drawn games to games decided by a point.
In the last four seasons of the old do-or-die football championship —1997 to 2000 — there were 23 games that went to a replay and only 12 that were decided by a point.
In other words a game was twice as likely to finish a draw than have one point separating the sides. The phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the Leinster football championship. From 1997 to 2000, that championship featured 11 replays and only two games decided by a point. That is, you were at least five times more likely to have a game end in a draw than in a one-point victory for either side.
It’s so different now. This year we’ve had no replays in Leinster — and three games in which the margin of victory was one point.
In 2000, the last year of the old championship format , it was the other way around. In Leinster there were three replays and no games decided by a point.
It’s a trend prevalent throughout the entire championship. In the last four years of the old do-or-die championship, the ratio of draws to one-point games was 2:1. In the last four years it’s 1:4. Since 2008, we’ve had eight replays — and 33 games decided by a solitary point.
Those stats confirm that the cynics of yesteryear were right. Referees were playing for draws. But that was because they were human and the old championship format was almost inhumane.
Under the old system, lose and you were gone for the year. Now if you lose in your province, you’re back out in a few weeks, and even if you lose by a point after that in the All-Ireland series, at least you got to play that long into the summer.
In a way, those of us who decried all those draws in the old days should applaud Reilly’s lack of sentimentality last Sunday. After all, Kildare do live to fight another day, just not in Leinster.
We can’t do that though. Winning Leinster would have been huge for Kildare. They might still be in the All-Ireland but they’re a long way out from getting back to within one game of winning that title. They didn’t deserve to be deprived of their best shot at silverware on such a whimsical, dubious decision.
Draws are hard to come by in hurling too. In last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final, Galway had a strong case for a free which would have levelled their tie against Tipperary. In another era, it would undoubtedly have been awarded but now it’s as if referees are scared to be seen to be playing for a replay.
Championship 2011 still awaits its first replay. That might change this weekend with Cork and Kerry in Killarney. Four of their last six encounters down there have required a rematch. Either way, let’s hope the game’s finish doesn’t hinge on a dubious free.
* Contact: kieranshannon@eircom.net
