Referees to be taken out of retrospection
Bannon’s motion received 89% of delegates’ support on Saturday, far more than the required two-thirds majority after he altered his proposal.
The Legan Sarsfields original motion called for the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to deal with any incidents they believed the referee had either not dealt with sufficiently or seen.
After speaking to prominent rule experts on Friday night, Bannon added an amendment, which restricts the CCCC to addressing issues not witnessed by the referee.
Cork secretary Frank Murphy and Central Hearings Committee chairman Liam Keane, who had spoken against the original motion when it was first tabled last year, articulated their backing of it in light of the amendment.
However, Duffy admitted the successful motion will now put more of an onus on referees to punish unruly players appropriately as the CCCC will no longer be able to revisit any decisions made by the match official.
“There is a danger that a referee might give a yellow where he should have given a red,” said Duffy.
“We will look at those cases and we will look at appointments — referees who do that simply cannot be appointed.
In his speech explaining the motion, Bannon revealed the Monday after the 2009 All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Cork and Tyrone in which he officiated was the most difficult 24 hours of his refereeing career.
The Longford man had been asked by the CCCC to review his decision to yellow card John Miskella when a red card would have put him out of the All-Ireland final.
Bannon elected not to change his original decision, revealing afterwards he had considered the ramifications of upgrading Miskella’s punishment for the player.
However, GAA President Christy Cooney said he doesn’t believe referees will now take such matters into consideration when officiating All-Ireland semi-finals.
“I believe that the referee will make the decision as the right decision as they see it at the time.
“They’ll make that decision regardless of whether that’s an All-Ireland semi-final, quarter-final or the first round of the championship or an All-Ireland final.
“I don’t think a referee knowingly or consciously when they’re refereeing a game thinks ‘Oh God, it’s an All-Ireland final next week’. I don’t think referees operate that way. They make their decision as they see it and they call it.”
Bannon himself admitted he wasn’t completely satisfied with the new motion but accepted the amendment on the basis the originally drafted proposal would have failed.
“I’m 97% happy, I wouldn’t be 100% happy,” he conceded.
“My original motion was giving power to the CCCC to do what they wanted the referee to do.
“But in consultation over the last two days with prominent rules people and people from different counties, they felt it was giving the CCCC too much power, that they were refereeing the games.
“So they were opposed to that and the motion was defeated heavily last year and would have been defeated.”
Bannon shared in Duffy’s concern that as the CCCC can no longer ask referees to consider upgrading yellow cards players may get away with serious infringement scot-free.
“My big problem was from the referee’s point of view so I got that sorted but some people would say if a referee makes a serious error this summer and there’s a horrendous red card incident and he gives a yellow that would be unfortunate because the player would get away with it.
“But I would hope that wouldn’t arise.”
Meanwhile, Liam Keane was appointed this year’s International Rules manager for the two tests in Australia.
Central Council decided to give the Meath native the position working alongside manager Anthony Tohill.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
