McKeever bemoans 'ref' justice

Armagh captain Ciarán McKeever has had his fair share of run-ins with referees over the years, so much so that he feels like a marked man even before a ball has been kicked in anger.

The influential half-back, who was Ireland's vice-captain for last year's successful International Rules series, will lead his county into battle against Tyrone this Sunday.

The much-anticipated Ulster SFC quarter-final will be refereed by Cavan whistler Joe McQuillan who will be keen to keep a firm hold of proceedings.

But McKeever believes that there is no enough consistency being shown by inter-county referees, especially given his experience of having red cards rescinded.

"I’ve been playing club senior football for 15 years, never been sent off. I’ve been on the Armagh panel since 2003. I think I’ve been sent off twice that I deserved and I’ve been sent off on several occasions that have been rescinded," he said.

"I feel that before I go out I’m in the referee’s book. It’s up to me to try and curtail that but when some people come looking for it there’s very little you can do about it. When the referee insists on a yellow card for something you didn’t do it’s hard to stomach."

As a defender, the St Patrick's Cullyhanna clubman has seen first hand how forwards often come off best in tight decisions that can often be the difference between winning and losing a game.

"What is a free on Sunday mightn't be a free in a different match. Some boys are trying to con free-kicks and buy free-kicks all day long. It's hard for a defender," he insisted.

"Forwards always get the breaks. If you're a forward, you can get away with 10 fouls in a match and not get booked whereas if a defender makes one foul, he's living on the edge for the rest of the game."

Vastly experienced at inter-county level, McKeever believes that some referees need to improve their interaction with players, conceding that some can treat you 'like a schoolboy'.

"You can crack a joke with some referees on the field, but the majority of them are non-negotiable.

"They feel that when a player is talking to them, they are speaking down to them, but, then, when you ask them what a free is for, they have the authority to speak to you like a schoolboy in a playground."

His collection of yellow and red cards in the Armagh jersey show that McKeever has never shied away from making a hard challenge on an opponent.

Asked about the fine line between tackling fairly and overstepping the mark, he explained: "Well that’s the name of the game. If there’s somebody there that’s got to be hit, they’ve got to be hit."

McKeever also feels that the GAA's disciplinary panels should have the authority to question a referee's performance if they feel there is an issue arising from a match.

“I think it boils down to consistency of referees and umpires and linesmen. It boils down to a lot of these men in the CCCC that have the right to look over a match when it’s over but at the end of the day they can’t call a decision that a referee makes during a match.

“They can’t reprimand them or make them stand up and be counted for what they did wrong but they can accuse a player. It is just wrong."

Armagh's defensive enforcer, who turns 29 later this month, was involved in quite a controversy back in March when he was the subject of alleged sectarian abuse during an Allianz League encounter with Laois.

At the time the Armagh County Board issued a hard-hitting statement complaining of 'racism' and 'partitionist provocation'. "The chanting of ‘God Save the Queen’ and malign taunting of ‘British b*****d’ has no place either on or off the field of play," it read.

McKeever and Laois' Billy Sheehan, who allegedly verbally abused him, were called before the CCCC to explain their respective parts in the incident in the O'Moore Park tunnel which led to McKeever being sent off.

When asked about the issue yesterday, McKeever was keen to move on. "It's something I don't want to comment on. It was very badly handled. There was a lot of stuff in the press, but nobody knew what happened.

"As far as I'm concerned, what happens on the field stays on it and I never came crying over what happened.

"It was just something this past seven or 10 years from the same individual. There's no point coming crying about it now," he added.