Monaghan gets ‘pleasant surprise’ with football final date

KILDARE referee Mick Monaghan, whose appointment as the referee for the Kerry-Tyrone Bank of Ireland football championship final on September 25 was announced yesterday, admitted that the news had come out of the blue for him.

"It was a very pleasant surprise. I feel honoured to have been chosen,'' he said, adding that it still hadn't "sunk in fully."

He is the first referee from the county to handle a final since Tommy Howard took charge of the 1993 decider between Cork and Derry. That game was noteworthy for the controversial decision to send off Cork wing-back Anthony Davis, who was subsequently exonerated.

A prominent club player, Monaghan won a Leinster club medal with Raheens in 1982 and last year he handled the AIB All-Ireland club final between Caltra and Gaeltacht.

A member of the inter-county referees panel for the past seven years, he also has an All-Ireland minor final to his credit.

Two years ago, he was the man in the middle for the All-Ireland semi-final between Armagh and Donegal. And in the current campaign, he handled the Connacht semi-final between Galway and Leitrim, the Ulster semi-final between Armagh and Derry and the fourth-round qualifier game between Tyrone and Monaghan.

Keenly looking forward to handling his first final, he agreed that his job would be made easier if the two teams approach the game in a positive frame of mind. "It makes all the difference,'' he added. "I remember the club final last year, it was a dream to referee. But if it goes the other way it can be very difficult.

"Any time you attend a game (as a spectator) you are looking viewing it through the eyes of the referee. You know what it is like for him when he makes a mistake because you have been there yourself."

Meanwhile, the ESB All Ireland minor football final will be refereed by Maurice Deegan of Laois, who has already handled two finals this year the intermediate club final between Carbery Rangers and Pomeroy Plunkett's and the Cadbury under-21 football final between Galway and Down. A county championship medal-winner with Stradbally, he has been on the inter-county panel for the last four years.

*It has also been confirmed that the Erin All Ireland under-21 hurling final between Galway and Kilkenny will be played at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on Sunday week, September 18.