Davy Fitz: Two referees needed for hurling

By Peter O’ Dwyer

All-Ireland winning manager Davy Fitzgerald has called for the introduction of a second referee in games as a result of the faster pace of the modern game.

He also called for referees and their assistants to be allowed communicate with each other via microphone as in other sports like rugby and soccer.

The Clare boss said that referees are under a huge amount of pressure to react to every incident and that a second referee might alleviate such pressure.

“With the way the game is moving, maybe is it time to look at a second referee at the other side of the field? It’s very hard to cover the ground,” he said.

“It’s very hard, with the speed of our game, for the referee to be up and down and not be allowed talk to his umpires and stuff like that.

"Maybe better communication [would help]. They say that their umpires aren't allowed talk to them or whatever the story is. You sometimes see backs mangling forwards and the umpire can't see it. I remember we had a game in my first year with Clare when our full-back had his helmet pulled down.

"My man grabbed onto him after that because he was blinded and it was a penalty. But the first instance wasn't seen and how was the ref to see it? He was maybe 60 yards away,” he added.

Fitzgerald was quick to state that he did not feel there was much wrong with the game despite his suggestions and having a gripe about the number of frees awarded against his side during the league campaign.

“Apart from that, our game is strong. I wouldn't go mad on stuff. [On the issue of] the amount of frees, I would just say to them, you don't have to blow for everything and anything,” he said.

“There was one thing that bothered me and the statistics will back it up. One game we played, there were 16 scoreable frees given inside midfield to the opposition and we got seven. That couldn’t be right.

“I know when I looked back at the game afterwards, I saw nearly the same examples where we could have got frees. Referees will say they were frees but we can say there were examples on our side of the same thing and you didn’t give them.”

Clare will open their Championship campaign against the winners of Cork and Waterford on June 15 as they look to add the Munster title won by Limerick last year to their trophy cabinet.