Managers must play by rules, says Gough

A TOP Ulster GAA official has called on managers and teams to take their share of responsibility for the red mist that has blighted many of this summer’s provincial football games.

Former referee John Gough said teams needs to examine how they are playing the game.

“Teams are going to have to play by the rules,” said Gough, who is now part of the refereeing committee and will spend the summer assessing officials in championship games.

“I have little complaint with any refereeing performance I have seen so far. Referees can only referee what is put in front of them, and if managers send teams out to play a certain way, that is going to result in more yellow cards.

“The expectation is immense on players and especially managers now, and that competitiveness can spill over.

“No manager is going to criticise one or two of his players, so it is only natural the referee is going to be criticised. But none of the criticism last weekend referred to a specific incident.”

Gough believes the plethora of cards that defined last weekend are a direct result of increased powers given to linesmen and umpires this year.

Every umpire team, associated with an inter-county referee, was required to do an umpiring course before the championship, where they learned the new signalling system.

“Teams aren’t going to get away with breaking the rules so much anymore. The referee and two linesmen are in constant communication, because they are linked up. And the four umpires are now instructing - they have very specific signals to give a ref about an incident.”

“Umpires know what is expected of them now. And they are being a lot more assertive in all the championship games I have seen,” believes Gough. “Indeed, I envisage a time when the umpires will be wired up to the referee, like the linesmen and fourth official are now.”

When Gough and his fellow assessors are reviewing the officiating performance, they not only look at the man in the middle, but his team of officials.

“You look at the team of officials, each with specific instructions as to what their job entails. No referee is going to blow for anything he didn’t see, but he will run 100 yards to consult an umpire, if signalled to do so, or 50 yards to consult a linesmen if requested.”

Far from referees being too strict or adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ policy, Gough wonders if referees shouldn’t be stricter in implementing the rules. “It is very simple at the moment. Firstly, you are noted. Second time, yellow card. Third time, red card. At present, I think referees are being liberal in noting.

“I think any noting offence should be noted, simply to get consistency into every refereeing performance. That is what we are striving for here. Consistency and that is why managers and players get frustrated, because they think a referee is being inconsistent.”

However, he does feel that things have moved on a lot in the past decade as regards refereeing.

“When I was refereeing, there was probably too many tough, old battles. I don’t think a lot of things that were tolerated back then would be tolerated now. At that time, linesmen felt they couldn’t interfere and there were no signals for umpires. The whole system has been dramatically improved.”

Gough rejects the criticism of Tommy Lyons and John O’Mahony on The Sunday Game that there is very little communication between managers and referees.

“The channels are there now, for any manager who wants to communicate with a referee. They had been invited a number of times to meet the national referees’ committee. One such meeting, scheduled six weeks ago, was attended by only three county managers.”