Blood subs come under scrutiny

Referees chief Pat McEnaney says the GAA should consider putting time limits on blood substitutions.

The Monaghan native believes a discussion is needed on the idea of enforcing 10 or 15 minute restrictions on such interchanges. In Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final, Mayo had two players — Lee Keegan and Enda Varley — taken off and replaced under the blood sub rule.

However, neither player returned to the game. During his inter-county career, McEnaney also admits that teams attempted to convince him that injuries were worthy of blood substitutions when they were not.

“There were so many cases of the blood sub rule at the weekend. I remember, at the time it came in, the idea of putting a limit of 10 or 15 minutes on a blood replacement came up for discussion.

“It was decided there wouldn’t be a time limit on it. However, I don’t disagree with looking at something like that now.

“If there’s a case like the Mayo v Dublin game when the player is not coming back on it should possibly be counted as a substitute. It’s one we should not hide under the carpet and something we should have some discussion about.”

Interestingly, McEnaney admits teams attempted to hoodwink him about the authenticity of blood substitutes during his time as an inter-county referee.

“It can be an excuse used by a team not to use a substitute. The decision is entirely up to the referee. Lads have tried that on me on numerous occasions. The referee just has to be strong and make the correct call.”

Meanwhile, McEnaney has told inter-county managers to leave it up to the referees to decide how best to officiate. Last week, Brian Cody suggested that next Sunday’s All-Ireland final referee Barry Kelly may be convinced to judge his team in a bad light following reporting of their semi-final.

He also expressed his wish that the game be allowed flow and a good level of physicality permitted by the referee. McEnaney said the Westmeath man is more than capable of doing his job capably without any outside advice.

“It’s part of what we have to deal with. Barry Kelly has been brilliant this year and he just has to continue that form.

“As Cyril Farrell said, if the rules are applied then there won’t be any problem. I believe we can manage our job. I manage my team and let managers manage their own teams.

“It’s nothing new. I was exposed to it myself back in the mid-nineties and it’s part of the little things that go on around the game.

“You hear people coming out saying ‘I don’t meant to offend anybody but...’. Listen, we’ll deal with it and we’ll manage it.”

McEnaney also expressed his annoyance at how inaccurate remarks made about last Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final referee Joe McQuillan were allowed to go unchecked.

In the build-up to the game, Mayo manager James Horan had made a remark about reports the Cavan official had taken charge of Dublin training games. The subject was raised on Saturday’s RTÉ Radio One Saturday Sport programme before McEnaney later clarified and then again on Sunday that McQuillan had performed no such role for Dublin in the last two years.

“It’s a cheap shot to me. Listen, this has been going on since I’ve been refereeing. It’s not something that has suddenly crept into the game.

“I was on RTÉ Radio [on Sunday] to talk about it and it’s very disappointing hearing people, ex-players and those in the media making comments about Joe McQuillan and that he’s supposed to have done something without backing it up with facts.

“Joe never refereed an in-house game for Dublin this year or last year. He can’t even remember if he has ever refereed a challenge game involving them.

So to me, those cheap shots were with no foundation. Actually, they were based on lies as foundation. The people who made those comments were completely ill-informed.”