Plea for more respect for match officials

GIVE the referees a break.

Or face the consequences of a melt-down in recruitment.

A plea for more support and greater understanding of the referees’ role was made yesterday in the wake of criticism expressed by Tipp manager Babs Keating, who questioned the background of Brian Gavin, Sean McMahon and Diarmuid Kirwan in the game.

And, unusually for the reason that they rarely go into print, the call for a more responsible approach from players and team officials came from a referee.

John Sexton is Limerick-born but has officially transferred to Cork.

A member of the national referees’ panel, he has not been directly implicated in the recent controversy. But, while complimenting President Nickey Brennan on his public support for referees, he feels that at a general level there is a lack of respect for their role.

“If you can’t protect your own, who can you protect,’’ he commented. “No referee goes out on to the field to make a mistake. Look how many mistakes players can make in a game.’’

In response to the Tipperary manager’s comments, made in an interview, Sexton pointed out that the three named referees had played at club level and one of them had represented his county.

“He made remarks that none of them played hurling, but in my eyes these referees are well up to inter-county standard. And, they have full knowledge of the playing rules, not like some of the hurlers out there. And, these men train as hard as the players.

“Managers must respect referees and match officials. Otherwise we’re going nowhere,’’ he said.

He has been living in Ballyhea since 1991 and in addition to his refereeing commitments, he trains the local Under-16 hurlers twice a week. “I decided to transfer to Cork for family reasons,’’ he explained.

“When referees are criticised in public, they are not the only ones to be affected. It hurts their families as well. This type of ‘scathing criticism’ has to stop. The danger is that young people will not take it (refereeing) up unless it stops.’’

Meanwhile, Nickey Brennan accepts that it’s ‘fair comment’ to suggest that there would be fewer controversies if referees enforced the rules and applied appropriate censures. “When people talk about referees, we ask them to do one thing and one thing only — apply the rules. That’s all we ask,’’ he commented.

“I would compliment the referees. We have had an exceptionally good performance from referees overall this year. I think they deserve our support and they have my support.’’

Singling out the two Dublin/Meath games the Tipperary/Limerick saga, as well as the Cork/Waterford tie and Dublin/Wexford games, he said that being ‘in the middle of a fantastic era of quality’ hurling and football made him feel ‘extremely good’ as President.

“I don’t want to see the sort of incidents we have had recently overshadowing what is a fantastic summer of Gaelic games. And, we haven’t hit the main course yet.’’

The President has sent his best wishes to Ulster Council official Declan O’Neill from Omagh who was robbed on Sunday after leaving Casement Park with the takings from the Derry and Monaghan provincial semi-final. “It was appalling and I utterly condemn what happened,’’ he said.

In the meantime, the Ulster Council is to review the way it transfers large amounts of money from venues.

As the President has acknowledged, it’s the Leinster Council and not the CCC which will investigate the brawl which broke out between players from Carlow and Louth in Sunday’s Leinster semi-final in Croke Park.