Paddy Joe Ryan calls for injury-time guidelines

Waterford chairman Paddy Joe Ryan has called on the National Referees Committee to issue stricter time-keeping guidelines to end disputes over the amount of injury-time allotted.

The Waterford footballers lost to Longford on Sunday and manager Tom McGlinchey was furious referee Shane Hehir awarded only one minute of stoppages at the end of the second-half.

An injury sustained by Waterford’s Michael O’Halloran held up the contest for over two minutes. Along with the five substitutions and two red cards, McGlinchey was baffled as to why more time wasn’t played.

“I can’t understand why the hooter system wasn’t brought in. It defies logic,” he fumed. “There is a contract in place with a contractor to put these in every county ground in the country and they are not going to use them. This is something we have to look at, not just today, but overall.”

Ryan says GAA chiefs need to tackle the problem. “I thought the referee had a very good game, but I did think there should have been more injury-time. There is a disparity in the injury-time allotted,” he said.

“The referees committee will have to give their referees better and tighter guidelines in dealing with stoppages and awarding the correct amount of injury time. We need consistency that all the referees are doing the same thing with regard to stopping the watch when there is an injury or substitution.

“The amount of injury-time played has always rested with the ref. That should not change, that should always be the case.”

Ryan, disagreeing with McGlinchey, is adamant the rejected hooter is not the solution. He revealed Walsh Park is not included in the list of county grounds being fitted with a permanent clock and hooter.

“Ever before the motion on the hooter went to Congress, I seconded a motion at Central Council that the hooter be disbanded. I think it is completely unworkable. If the hooter was to come in, it would have to be introduced for club games as well as inter-county games.

“That simply isn’t feasible. The referee wouldn’t take on responsibility of the hooter so you’d need an individual present whose sole responsibility is the clock. There is still room for human error there.

“People will inevitably say there was an injury that the clock wasn’t stopped for. There will still be complaints over the stopping and restarting of the hooter. The hooter will never be the solution, I believe.”