Flynn fumes at standard of refereeing

Bernard Flynn has attacked the standard of refereeing in this year’s football championship and claimed some officials have cost teams games.

The former Meath player turned pundit believes a number of Martin Higgins’ decisions denied Westmeath a famous victory over Kerry in Mullingar on Sunday.

He also claimed Rory Hickey’s calls provoked the crowd at the Roscommon-Tyrone qualifier the previous day.

Flynn was particularly critical of Higgins’ over-carry judgment on Ronan Foley, which led to a free and eventually Darran O’Sullivan’s second-half goal.

“I just thought it was outrageous. I was there at the match and with the big decision in the second-half the referee absolutely done Westmeath — there’s no question or doubt about it.

“There were about four crucial decisions I’d seen that were game-breakers and turning points there.

“The free? It was no free, absolutely no free. There were two other frees that he never gave when Westmeath forwards were fouled inside at a crucial time when it was level. I thought it was a travesty. They probably should have won it — it would have been great for them. They didn’t but the referee had a lot to answer for with four or five crucial calls. They go with the bigger team and the lesser team gets hammered for it.”

Flynn also revealed former Kerry players felt the same way about Higgins’ decisions.

“I was talking to Darragh Ó Sé and Mikey Sheehy after the match and they just thought the referee was very hard on them (Westmeath).

“If it was a lesser team Westmeath probably would have got those calls but because it was Kerry, and maybe Dublin at times, the bigger teams get those calls.

“Overall, I did say Pat McEnaney would make a big difference but I just think the refereeing has been poor throughout the season.”

Flynn has a bugbear with what he terms “fussy refereeing” and suggests McEnaney’s position as National Referees Committee chairman may be bringing undue attention on match officials.

“This thing about making a stand early on — let the thing go unless there’s a break or free.

“That’s the one disappointing thing for me — Pat McEnaney was one of the best referees and there is just too much attention on referees and him at the helm, I don’t know whether it’s helping them or hindering them, because it just seems to be drawing an awful lot of attention on them.

“I just think the standard of refereeing is very poor. I was down at Roscommon and Tyrone on Saturday and the referee (Rory Hickey) was poor there, very poor.”

Estimates on the amount of frees in Sunday’s game in Mullingar vary from 53 to 56, which is incredibly excessive in Flynn’s opinion.

“If you go over 50 frees in a match, with all the other stoppages, it’s going to kill it. I’m fed up with saying it. It (Westmeath v Kerry) wasn’t a dirty game. It was hard, it was intense and the referee blew for every little fiddle-faddle.”

He added: “That’s the biggest problem — fussy referees with whistles. They can’t leave them out of their mouths.

“Referees think they have to blow the whistle to have a good game — it’s ridiculous.”