Coldrick gives referees' viewpoint

David Coldrick says all GAA referees are 'big enough' to take criticism of their decisions, but personal attacks on match officials are totally uncalled for.

A calf injury forced Coldrick to pull out of refereeing last Sunday's Leinster SFC semi-final between Dublin and Kildare which ended in a controversial one-point win for the Dubs.

His replacement, fellow Meath man Cormac Reilly, was the subject of intense criticism from sections of the GAA media for awarding a disputed late free.

The spotlight on referees' performances has been ramped up over the past twelve months. The fall-out from Martin Sludden's well-publicised error at the end of last year's Leinster final went on for months.

Incorrect decisions are now thoroughly dissected, with the benefit of TV replays, but mistakes will often be made in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a Championship match.

Coping with the increased scrutiny from the media can be difficult according to Coldrick, who has refereed two All-Ireland SFC finals and works as an Executive Manager with Irish Life Retail.

Writing in his latest blog entry on the Irish Life website, he said: "The media attention on referees at inter-county level has been building steadily over the last few years.

"There's no doubt that this puts pressure on referees each weekend during the Championship season. Referees understand that this comes with the territory but what also needs to be understood is that the referee has a split second to make each and every decision in a given match.

"He doesn't have recourse to five different camera angles or have the ability to watch five replays of the incident. Referees call it as they see it and this is no different now to any point in the past, it's just that there are far more cameras and 'experts' pouring over each and every decision a referee makes now."

Coldrick reckons that some condemnation of refereeing calls can stem from a lack of knowledge of the playing rules. In games of such high stakes, things can get unnecessarily personal as Coldrick's colleague Sludden found out last year.

"All referees are big enough to take criticism of individual decisions on the basis of erroneous implementation of the playing rules but where criticism is sometimes based on someone's 'own' set of rules which may bear little resemblance to the actual playing rules adopted by the GAA, it can be hard.

"What is also difficult to accept is when media criticism becomes a personal attack on a referee. This is cheap and not part of the game.

"Each referee has a family and neither the referee nor his family should be subjected to negative personal comments in the media. This should also be the case for players and their families.

"GAA referees adopt a professional approach to training and preparation for games. We continually strive to meet high standards and improve performance as the speed and intensity of games increase and the media scrutiny also intensifies. Referees are proud to be volunteers in the GAA."

Coldrick, who has been refereeing since 1994, will be in charge of Sunday's televised Munster SFC final between Cork and Kerry in Killarney.