Leinster GAA reveal worrying drop off in referees

Provincial chiefs say that 44 new referees were recruited in the province - less than four per county.

Leinster chiefs say that 44 new referees were recruited in the province - less than four per county.

Leinster GAA experienced a referees drop-off of 15% in 2021.

In his annual report, referees’ administration committee chairman Martin Whyte reveals the troubling findings from a recent study of match official numbers in the province.

“A disappointment for the committee, and again due to Covid restrictions, was the low level of referee recruitment,” he writes.

“The committee was again this year unable to arrange referee training in a classroom setting and while online training was provided, it was felt that face-to-face interaction between tutors and new referee recruits provides the best possible training experience for all concerned.

“Research was carried out in Leinster and the following preliminary results were noted: each referee is officiating at approximately 27 games. It should be noted that this number does not include LGFA, camogie and juvenile games they are also involved in. Nearly 50% of referees also referee LGFA and camogie. We lost 15% of our referees this year who either retired or ‘walked away’; 44 referees were recruited in the province, that is less than four per county.

“It is vital that proper structures are put in place in counties. The referee administrator cannot do it all and if this help is not forthcoming then recruitment will suffer and standards will fall.”

Whyte says the lack of young hurling referees is worrying. “I know from experience that a lot of clubs supply no referees to their county while other clubs supply more than one. Until these matters are addressed our numbers will not increase and may even decrease! Trying to get younger referees involved is proving very difficult, particularly in hurling.

“Obviously, the continuing abuse (verbal, physical and online) targeted at referees is a huge problem. We need county committees to take a stand against this abuse. Only recently we have seen two inter-county referees verbally and physically abused and if we do not stop/punish the perpetrators our games will continue to suffer.”

Meanwhile, Leinster GAA chief executive Michael Reynolds believes midweek games for U21s have to be strongly considered if they are to retain more under-age players.

“Too often in the past, many of us have talked about the importance of, for instance the U21 grade as a means of keeping players involved,” he states. “Yet more often than not we run this competition on a knockout basis shoehorned into the tail end of the year when all other competitions have been completed, hardly the credence with which to treat such an important grade.

“Recently, in a group discussion around the regularity and certainty of games for this critical age bracket the suggestion of games on a midweek evening in the spring or summer was met with hesitation. This was due in no small part to the belief that players would not be released to partake in these games by club managers.

“This mindset... must change if we are ever to truly address our issues around fixtures. The culture of looking for any conceivable way to postpone or cancel games must shift to that of one where we are looking for games.”