Standard of refereeing threatens hurling - McCarthy

TWENTY-FOUR hours on from Sunday’s dramatic Munster hurling semi-final draw, the Waterford and Limerick managers were both philosophical about the refereeing in the game.

More interesting, while Justin McCarthy raised questions about the experience of Carlow official Pat Aherne, he admitted to having a greater concern about the general standard of refereeing in hurling, fearing that it could be detrimental to the game in the short term.

"The standard over the past year or two hasn't been great. I think the standard in football is away better,'' he commented. "There are a lot of technical things in hurling that they are too fussy about. Whether they can keep up with the play or not I don't know, but some of them don't seem to be au fait with it.

"I'm disappointed from a hurling point of view, whatever about the match. There is no real consistency in the refereeing of hurling and it's to the detriment of the game. Hurling is going to suffer and then all of a sudden, in a year or two, they'll be saying that something should be done. It has to be done now.

"A Munster semi-final is a high-pressure game for a referee who might not have that much experience and Pat Aherne hasn't that experience.''

Overall, he felt there were too many incidents throughout the game where the referee was indecisive and he made wrong calls. He also felt that the umpiring was very slack.

Waterford dispute the equalising point scored by substitute Eoin Foley, whereas Dave Keane was satisfied that it was correctly awarded, maintaining that the ball dropped inside the post after hitting an upright. However,

McCarthy regarded this and other decisions as 'peripheral things' that would only be talked about after a close game.

"There is no one player or no team that's greater than the game. What I don't want to see is that hurling is going to suffer. Referees are either playing too safe or playing to orders from the point of view that they are afraid to express themselves. There is very little common sense being used and that's the bottom line in my opinion. You must use common sense, leave the game flow where it has to flow and use your judgement where you have to, and be up with the play. Referees are afraid to make a mistake and they are making lots of them.''

Waterford secretary Seamas Grant was more vocal in his criticism: "It was an extraordinary bad day for the referee and, while Limerick too can feel dissatisfied with some of his decisions, it was Waterford who suffered most in that regard. The referee left the field to the jeers and boos of very angry Waterford supporters. It could and probably would have been a very volatile situation had we lost."

Meanwhile, as the players prepare to resume light training tonight there are reports of several niggling injuries. None are serious enough to threaten their participation in Saturday's eagerly awaited replay. "There were a lot of bruised and battered bodies in our dressing room after the game, and these will take a day or two to heal," Grant said.

David Keane, whose views were influenced by the outcome, readily admitted that himself and McCarthy had reason to complain about specific decisions: "It's not excusing the referee, but on the law of averages, there are things that are going to go for you and things that will go against you. The second penalty he awarded, we got the goal out of it. But, he didn't give the advantage and we were penalised there. You have to look at it overall.

"We would have settled for a draw early on. That's why we are not as critical of the referee,'' he added.

*Sunday's draw was the first between the counties since 1940 (Limerick 4-2, Waterford 3-5), in Killarney with Limerick winning the replay 3-5 to 3-3 in Clonmel. The Waterford team included Paddy Greene, the grandfather of current defender Brian Greene and former greats like John Keane and Christy Moylan. Limerick had the Mackey brothers Mick and John, Jackie Power and Paddy Scanlon in goal. It was Waterford who came back to level, through a late score from Keane.

*Prior to Sunday, the counties had met 18 times, with victory going to Limerick on 12 occasions. More interesting, in ten clashes between 1971 and 2001, Waterford were only victorious once, in 1982.