Allen wants separate hurling refereeing body

Limerick manager John Allen has called for a separate refereeing body for hurling in the wake of the controversial dismissals of Cork’s Pat Horgan and Kilkenny’s Henry Shefflin this summer.

The issue of how strict or lenient referees should be has been a live debate going back to the no-holds barred All-Ireland finals between Kilkenny and Tipperary in recent years and beyond.

Pat McEnaney, the chairman of the National Referees Committee, stated last year there had been incidents in hurling where players should have been sent off but weren’t and Allen agreed with the notion that officials have clamped down since.

The decision by James McGrath to send Horgan off halfway through the Munster final against Cork and Barry Kelly’s pair of yellow cards for Shefflin has been keenly discussed and Allen clearly feels for the men in the middle.

“At this stage I’ve seen it on television. Referees are under huge pressure to play to the rules and so on. I’d a lot of sympathy for Barry Kelly, and for James McGrath from the Munster final. You make a decision in real time and people can parse it and analyse it on TV and in papers.

“A lot of the yellow cards are very innocuous fouls. It puts a lot of pressure on players and referees if they give yellow cards to a player early on. I think there needs to be a separate hurling referees group and forum because hurling and football are very different games. I just feel that’s probably necessary.”

Allen went on to speak of the “innocuous” fouls committed by Horgan and Shefflin and how Paudie O’Brien went to bat for the former with the disciplinary authorities by explaining that he had gone to ground after being struck by the sliotar rather than his opponent’s hurley.

Yet he was keen to move on and concentrate on the All-Ireland semi-final against Clare for which no Limerick player is currently ruled out although Kevin Downes and Sean Tobin have toe injuries and Shane Dowling a shoulder complaint.

The majority of his squad will be involved in club championship action this weekend but Allen will still two weeks with his squad afterwards to prepare for a Clare side with immediate concerns of their own.

A dozen of Davy Fitzgerald’s side will feature for the county U21s in their Munster final against Tipperary next Wednesday and Tony Kelly should be among them despite dislocating a toe in last Sunday’s senior defeat of Galway.