McEnaney: My refs will handle heat of summer
In his final season as chairman of the national referees committee, McEnaney is confident his football officials are more than capable of handling the black card and advantage rules.
Despite a number of contentious sendings off in last season’s hurling championship, he is assured referees will competently administer the new rule making interfering with a helmet a red card offence.
“If we’re near last year’s championship and this year’s league performance levels I don’t think anybody would have any complaints in my view,” he said.
“When you manage a team you hope your team is going to perform on the day and I’m no different. We’re in a game when referees perform I want them praised and when they don’t I can’t complain if they get stick.
“But there has to be a balanced view. When a player performs poorly he gets a certain level of criticism and I want the same criticism shown to a referee. Sometimes we have ridiculed a referee and the player doesn’t get the same level of criticism.”
McEnaney knows the black card coupled with a heightened level of intensity in championship games presents referees with a challenge, but insists they have been chosen because they can handle the heat.
“We have a championship panel up and running and the feedback we’ve received about the black card during the league has been quite positive.
“There were occasions when we shouldn’t have issued black cards and some where we gave yellows when we should have given black.
“But there’s no white rabbits coming out of the hat for the championship. We just carry on what we have been doing and doing it better.
“It’s a bigger test but we feel these are our best referees. We have selected 15 of them in football and we’re expecting them to deliver. That’s the pressure that comes with the job.”
Over the weekend, Donegal manager Jim McGuinness raised concerns about players feigning fouls this summer to hoodwink referees into giving black cards.
McEnaney has previously admitted there is the potential for diving but doesn’t yet regard it as a major concern.
“Maybe there have been one or two times when we were codded but I can’t say we’ve been codded on a grand scale. There has been the odd example but is there five or six?
“In all the games I’ve analysed I can say it hasn’t been a big issue.”
There were a number of instances during the league when players were sent off after referees sought the advice of officials. McEnaney is glad to see the officiating teams liaising with each other more than ever.
“Since I came in, I’ve always said I don’t care who gets the decision right as long as we get it right. The referee can use his whole team. There are seven officials out there so let’s use the people that we have.
“In the past players would have accused umpires of not getting involved enough, but I like to think that there has been a dramatic improvement in communications.”
McEnaney would not be drawn much on John Sexton’s reaction on Facebook after being omitted from the championship panel of hurling referees.
The Cork official posted: “I deserved better treatment for all the years of service.”
McEnaney said: “I would prefer to leave things like that alone. He was disappointed and in the circumstances that’s understandable.”
The Monaghan man highlighted the new helmet rule will be a judgement call for referees. “If you interfere with a helmet it’s a red card. The best advice for a player would be not to go anywhere near an opponent’s helmet. They have no business going near it.
“There are occasions when a helmet can be removed accidentally but things like pulling or dragging a helmet or tipping a fella’s helmet as the ball comes in their direction to gain an advantage won’t be tolerated. It’s up to the referee to call it just like he would a deliberate pull down or bodycheck with the black card in football.”
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