Munster hurling officials caught in vicious circle

I only caught up with the Setanta Sports series about referees recently, and it was well worth the effort.

Alain Rolland, Alan Kelly, Barry Kelly and David Coldrick were the officials followed by the cameras and each of them gave a terrific insight into the stresses and rewards of wearing black, metaphorically speaking, on big match day.

A throwaway line of Kelly’s tinkled in the ear: he recalled his early days officiating — teams on an A4 sheet was the killer detail — and the hurling snobbery that looked askance at a Westmeath referee handling big games.