A lonely place for the man in the middle

Speaking to Newstalk last month, resident hurling pundit Daithi Regan made a telling remark about the state of refereeing in hurling.

“You take somebody like Barry Kelly, who in certain counties they didn’t like to see referee because they felt he was too stringent. Then you have someone like our own Brian Gavin, who would be considered a little bit more liberal.

"If you look at the drawn and the replayed All-Ireland final, Barry Kelly reffed the drawn game really well and Brian Gavin similarly the second day but I would suggest that Barry Kelly reffed it more like along Gavin’s lines the first day, let the game flow and helped to contribute to what was an outstanding spectacle.”