Top referee hits out at players and managers

Last year's All-Ireland senior hurling final referee Diarmuid Kirwan has hit out at players and officials for their unfair criticism and abuse of referees, which he has branded as being 'over the top'.

He believes that certain players have a lack of respect for the authority of the referee and that some of them have a consistently bad attitude towards the men in the middle.

"I feel that there are certainly players out there that always seem to think that," Kirwan told Cork's Red FM.

"I notice myself that even at inter-county level you have certain players who just have this disrespect for referees. They always seem to think that the referee is wrong and that the match officials are wrong.

"I feel that on the field there are also the players who are always coming up to referees and cribbing and criticising and giving abuse.

"You wonder sometimes that if these fellas led by example it would be a lot easier for the referees that are involved in the game."

Kirwan has seen the full brunt of over-zealous players and officials in his own time as a referee, and has received physical abuse.

"On one occasion I was physically abused leaving the field after a championship game," he said.

"It was a minor assault."

Kirwan also revealed that it sometimes can be factors outside of the GAA's control which can lead to the abuse of officials.

"It's known that there is money involved and that gambling is becoming an issue with the games and that referees are not just unsafe from players and officials but supporters and everything else.

"It is making the referee's job a lot harder."

However Kirwan believes that players are not totally at fault for their actions. He points the finger of blame at managers too, whom he feels do not have full knowledge of the rules.

"My own personal belief is that the lack of respect from the players has led on from the management and officials on the sideline," he said.

"A lot of the players have a good idea of the rules, but unfortunately you have a lot of mentors involved with teams these days who are not au fait with the rules.

"When they start giving grief from the sideline it moves onto the players. They believe that when the management start, the players start also and that often causes the problems."

The Cork whistler reckons that both players and management have to embrace the GAA rule that along with respect for players and officials, the referee must also be respected at all times and that his decision is final.

"You'd hope they would embrace that, but unfortunately that doesn't always happen. There's so much pressure being put on managers now and a lot of managers for teams are from outside the club."

Kirwan laments that a 'win at all costs' mentality rather than 'participation for fun' has seeped through the GAA.

"It seems to be results-orientated more often than the playing of the game or enjoying it. It's all down to results, there is a lot of pressure on managers and to me that's where the problem seems to start."