Cork bursary bids to attract students to refereeing career

Munster GAA chairman Jerry O’Sullivan has hailed a “tremendous initiative” by Cork’s City Division GAA and referees’ boards to provide bursary funding to kickstart a career in refereeing.

Seandún GAA and referees have devised an initiative to encourage more students to get involved in refereeing, a first of its kind.

The division and the referees’ board is contributing €250 each to fund budding ref, Cathán Treacy’s (Nemo Rangers) appetite for the whistle via a UCC bursary. Munster Council chairman O’Sullivan said he was pleasantly surprised to learn of the initiative.

“This is a tremendous combined move by the Seandún GAA and the referees’ board in the city,” O’Sullivan stated.

“It is fantastic that they have come together in this manner as, hopefully, with this bursary in place now, it will encourage more students to take up refereeing. The numbers refereeing are nowhere near enough around the country. Cathán Treacy is a young referee, cutting his teeth, and will, hopefully, be the first of many to come to gain from this initiative.

“The numbers of students going to college with a desire to get involved in refereeing are few and far between. This, though, could change that. At the very least, it might encourage more of our youth to consider refereeing, as referees are as important to our association as our players are.”

O’Sullivan was on hand at the UCC Sports Scholarship awards to make presentations to students on behalf of the Munster Council.

And he suggested this addition to the awards list might interest other divisional boards in Cork, and further afield, to implement their own bursary funding for referees: “Those trying to recruit referees all over the country will be intrigued by this initiative. People are crying out for referees. So those in Seandún GAA and the referees’ board should be commended for such forward-thinking.” Mark Maher, an experienced referee on Leeside and son of legendary former Cork hurler Tony, outlined the background to the move.

“A couple of us got our heads together to come up with ideas of how best to get more young people interested in refereeing,” Maher explained. “And we felt a bursary might catch the eye of students. Cathán is the first young referee to receive this funding, a total of €500, but hopefully it will make the concept of refereeing more appealing to others now as well.

“It gives students another option when assessing choices and, who knows, the number of referees might increase slowly, over time, thanks to this idea. I would thank all of those that have rowed in behind the initiative from the Seandún board and our own referees’ group. It is also great to get the support of Jerry O’Sullivan,” Maher added.