Cooney: Violence towards match officials not increasing

GAA president Christy Cooney has refuted suggestions that violence towards match officials is on the increase after a weekend that was blighted by a pair of unsavoury incidents in both the male and female codes.

Last Friday, referee Simon Brady and chairman of the Tyrone ladies football board Martin Conway were assaulted at the end of the county final while an umpire was attacked in a Tipperary divisional hurling game.

Cooney declined to comment on the Tyrone incident on the basis that it occurred during a game that was under the jurisdiction of a sister organisation but, on the subject of such incidents in general, he was very clear.

“I can remember 30 years ago there were a lot more incidents,” he claimed. “It has improved enormously and I think it’s a question of keeping people off the pitch as well. You know the policy we’ve taken in Croke Park.

“All the major championship and club championship games should be played in enclosed pitches. People shouldn’t have the opportunity to get on the pitch to do any harm to referees, officials or players on either side. It’s something we expect from our mentors and our supporters. There are none of us who would like it to happen to ourselves or our family and everyone should be treated with due respect. I don’t believe it has increased. I don’t think I’ve heard of a major incident like this for quite a while. We shouldn’t have to hear about them at all. It’s not acceptable.”

Unsavoury incidents were not confined to Ireland last weekend as it also emerged that a Fermanagh player, Mark McGovern, was left with brain injuries and in a coma after an off-the-ball incident whilst playing his first game for the Ulster club in San Francisco. “We abhor that,” said Cooney. “Our policy is very clear. “We want our county boards and our divisional boards to deal with those types of situations and if a person is guilty the force of the association is taken in dealing with that.”

The president was also keen to lend his support to the association’s men in the middle after a weekend which saw another hotly-debated refereeing decision – Cormac Reilly’s last-minute free for Dublin against Kildare — highlighted and dissected.

“Referees have a job to do. They make a call as they see it and judge it and that’s it.

“We respect that fully. They do what they believe is the right thing to do, that’s why they have the job. That’s it.”

Meanwhile, the GAA expects to announce a new sponsor for the annual All Star awards and tour in the coming weeks.

Vodafone’s long-running support of the scheme came to an end with last year’s visit to Kuala Lumpur.

The GPA is currently in the final year of their sponsorship deal with Opel for their own awards scheme and it remains to be seen whether the two are merged this year, from 2012 on, or if they continue to remain independent.