Referees’ chief McEnaney accepts black card criticism but insists officials are up to the job

Chairman of the National Referee Committee Pat McEnaney has admitted that criticism of the application of the controversial black card rule is justified but has insisted that GAA officials are up to the task of implementing the rule effectively.

While broadly welcomed, the black card has caused predictable controversy on a number of occasions already this season as inconsistencies in the rule’s application has rankled with players, managers and fans alike.

There have been eight black card offences in eight championship matches to date – six of which have been officiated correctly, according to McEnaney.

“We’ve looked at eight championship matches, fully analysed them all. We’ve had eight black card incidents in those games and we’ve had six correct calls. That’s a 75% hit-rate. People say that’s a bit inconsistent [and] I’ve to accept that criticism,” he said on RTÉ’s ‘The Sunday Game’ last night.

McEnaney stressed however that his officials were willing to take responsibility for the decisions they got wrong and, as their own harshest critics, would expect to get them right.

“[The referees] have absolutely no problem holding their hands up… We have to accept the one that’s causing a little bit of confusion is the deliberate pull-down and that’s because we’ve missed two. Both referees will hold their hands up and say ‘God, how did I miss that?’”

McEnaney identified the two incorrectly officiated incidents as Paddy Bradley’s deliberate pull-down on Oran McNelis which went unpunished by Joe McQuillan during Donegal’s Ulster championship clash last month, and the referee David Coldrick’s failure to send Down’s Conor Maginn from the field for an intentional pull-down on Tyrone’s Mark Donnelly in their recent encounter.

The latter incident drew criticism from Tyrone coach Mickey Harte in the aftermath of the game as his side’s goalkeeper Niall Morgan was dismissed after receiving a black card for a foul on Jerome Johnston of Down.

The referees’ chief was part of a panel-discussion on the issue which also included former inter-county players Eamonn O’ Hara and Pat Spillane, as well as current Westmeath talisman Dessie Dolan.

According to Dolan, if the top referees are struggling to implement the black card effectively then club referees have little or no chance of doing so.

“The referees are really struggling to deal with it, I think. Look at the two best referees in the country David Coldrick and Joe McQuillan with seven officials… they’re struggling to deal with it,” he said.

“There’s an awful lot of situations where the best referees can’t implement the pulling down and in a club game there’s no four umpires and the referee is left in a no-win situation; there’s players kind of faking different things and in situations like that people are really getting irate. Supporters in the stands are shouting and in nearly every game in club football at the minute everyone’s shouting ‘black card referee’ and they don’t know the rules.

“The pulling down is not being implemented correctly at the best level; the top referees are struggling to deal with it but the club referees have no chance,” added Dolan.

Eight-time All-Ireland winner Spillane said that while he was in favour of a rule that curbed cynical play and protected the game’s more skilful players, he was surprised the black card was introduced without any trial period.

He also questioned whether referees needed more help and if their workload was too great.

Using the Conor Maginn incident as an example, Spillane illustrated the number of decisions that the referee had to make in a short space of time.

According to Spillane, referee David Coldrick had eight decisions to make in just over two seconds including:

- Was it a square ball?

- Was it a foul?

- Was he inside the square before the foul took place?

- Should advantage be allowed?

- If not, should a penalty be allowed?

- What sanction should be awarded?

While accepting criticism on the implementation of the black card with regard to intentional pull-downs, McEnaney said that it’s other two applications have been referee correctly at all times.

“We’ve all got to accept: deliberate body collide, we’ve got it right I think; we’ve nailed it. It’s the one thing in our game that’s really improved. The deliberate trip, we haven’t failed on that either,” he said.

The black card was first introduced during this year’s National Football League campaign in an attempt to reduce cynical fouling in the game and increase the number of scores.

Data released in April showed that the number of cards of any colour issued had fallen significantly since the black card’s introduction – from an average of 8.32 per game to 4.39 – and additionally, that scoring had increased by 10% throughout the league.