Time to introduce a second referee in hurling, says Fitzgerald

All-Ireland-winning manager Davy Fitzgerald has called for the introduction of a second referee during games to cut out the “mangling” of players.

Fitzgerald said referees were under immense pressure to patrol every incident that occurs during a match and encouraged the Hurling Review Committee to propose putting a second official inside the whitewash.

The Clare boss also called for referees to be mic’ed up to their umpires so the lines of communication are constantly open, eradicating cheap tackles away from the action.

Fitzgerald pointed to one example during his first season as Clare boss where a Banner defender was fouled off the ball, responded and a penalty was subsequently awarded because the referee did not see the initial foul.

“With the way the game is moving, maybe is it time to look at a second ref at the other side of the field? It’s very hard to cover the ground,” he noted.

“They say that their umpires aren’t allowed talk to them or whatever the story is. You sometimes see backs mangling forwards and the umpire can’t see it. I remember we had a game: our full-back was held by a forward. He pulled his helmet down. My man grabbed onto him after that because he was blinded and it was a penalty. But the first instance wasn’t seen and how was the ref to see it—– he was maybe 60 yards away?

“It’s very hard, with the speed of our game, for the referee to be up and down and not be allowed talk to his umpires.”

Fitzgerald, recently returned from a training camp in Portugal, hit out at what he saw as overuse of the whistle during the league. Too many frees were doled out, he claimed, claiming Clare were targets for referees because they are All-Ireland champions.

“I would just say to them, you don’t have to blow for everything and anything. I thought in the league we dished out yellow cards pretty handy. Just let it go — once you’re not favouring one team, that’s fine.

“There was one thing that bothered me and the statistics will back it up. One game we played, there were 16 scoreable frees given inside midfield to the opposition and we got seven. That couldn’t be right. I know when I looked back at the game afterwards, I saw nearly the same examples where we could have got frees. Referees will say they were frees but we can say there were examples on our side of the same thing and you didn’t give them.”

Podge Collins said this week that the Munster crown was the glaring omission from Clare’s achievements in 2013, but Fitzgerald doesn’t see it as a priority.

“There will be demands from our supporters and stuff like that. Our mindset is we have a game in the middle of June and that’s the only thing we are thinking about. We want to win every game like we did last year.”

Kilkenny, however, represent the one team he would relish crossing swords with this summer — the ultimate litmus test for his Clare outfit.

“Kilkenny are the greatest team I have seen for a number of years. That’s what you strive to, we are after winning an All-Ireland. We beat them in the league in a big competitive game, we were happy with that. So you’d like to meet them.”

Fitzgerald’s players have been in high demand since last September’s replay win and the manager remains unconvinced that the drive which fuelled their All-Ireland run still lingers.

“The Tipperary game, we were average. We weren’t at the high peak all the time and that is what I was afraid of. If we had won the All-Ireland for the second or third time, you wouldn’t be pulled and dragged as much. But when you are being asked to go here, go there, ‘will you come with the cup here?’ it does take it out of you. Is the same drive inside in you, I don’t know, and that was my problem. Is it an issue for the championship, I’m hoping not. I’m hoping the lads have parked that and left it. We are not going to know how exactly we have dealt with everything until the middle of the summer. We know we have to up it a notch but we are well capable of upping it a notch. Hopefully we will be okay.”