McEnaney confirms top referee panel scaled down

A number of top inter-county referees have been told they are surplus to requirements in 2013, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Pat McEnaney, chairman of the National Referees committee, has confirmed that a scaled down panel of whistlers has been put together for next season. But the Monaghan native, who took charge of four All-Ireland senior football finals during his illustrious career, would not divulge their names out of respect.

And McEnaney has indicated that further cuts in the football and hurling panels could follow in the years to come, so that the country’s leading referees get more games.

“The panel size that we agreed for 2013 [National Leagues] is no more than 50 for football and 45 for hurling. The problem is that it needs to go lower because we have only 80 hurling matches in the National Leagues, for example, and we’re looking to give every referee three or four games. That number of 45 needs to be reduced even more over the next few years, I would suggest.

“You need to have top referees doing more matches, so that’s why the numbers were reduced, plus the fact that we’re always asking the provincial councils to provide fresh faces and new names. This year they’ve come up with seven new football and five new hurling referees.

“We’ve had a look and said that we’re going to rum with them. Some people have lost out.”

The National League panellists will then battle it out for coveted championship spots. In 2012, 16 football and 12 hurling positions were on offer. The Irish Examiner understands, however, that the hurling championship roster may drop to ten in 2013, with just 24 games, excluding replays, pencilled in on the calendar.

McEnaney admitted that telling a referee that he is no longer required for intercounty activity is a difficult task – but insisted the shake-up is necessary.

“It’s the very same for the new lads coming in. There will come a time when they’re told that no, you’re not good enough, you’re over age or you’re not at the level that we expected from you. Nobody wants to be a sub, everybody wants to referee in the National League.

“And if they weren’t disappointed, I definitely wouldn’t want them.”

Ahead of the 2013 season, McEnaney revealed he’s looking for “more consistency” across the board from the national men in black.

“One of the things that we set out to do was look at body-checking – that was one of my challenges at the beginning of the year, particularly in football, and protecting the player as well.

“We have to make an improvement in that area. We did a lot of things well but when you’re an elite group of referees, you’re looking for perfection. That’s always the target and we have to keep trying to get there. It’s not always possible but that’s always the target.”