Mike Quirke: GAA referees have alternative ‘big-man rules’ for tall players

Mike Quirke gives his view of the lax protection given to some of the GAA’s top stars.

You’ve probably heard of Shaquille O’Neal somewhere along the line. Shaq is the recently retired 15-time All Star, and a four-time NBA champion, who was just inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame. At 7’1” and a touch under 24 stone, with astonishing athleticism to match, he was the most dominant big man of his era.

Veteran NBA referee Danny Crawford described O’Neal as the most difficult man he ever had to officiate because of his sheer size: We really struggled with the judgement calls on him, is he fouling or being fouled… it’s nearly guess work so we had to give the defender the benefit of the doubt a lot of the time. But there’s no question he took more punishment than most because of his physical strength.”