Oisín McConville admits being 'completely wrong' over incident with referee

The Wicklow football manager has addressed the incident which led to his four-week ban.

BANNED: Wicklow football manager Oisín McConville during the Allianz Football League Division 3 match against Down at Echelon Park, Aughrim, Wicklow. Picture: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Oisín McConville says he was "completely wrong" for addressing referee Kieran Eannetta following Wicklow's Allianz Football League Division 3 defeat to Sligo at Markievicz Park. 

The Wicklow manager was banned for four weeks for using "abusive language towards a referee". McConville denies he was abusive.  

"I went to the referee to give my side of events, where I thought he went wrong," he told the BBC's The GAA Social podcast.

"It's not fair for me to go and question the referee at that stage. It's too late, the game is done, it's dusted. I felt as if we had cause for having grievances around a lot of things that happened during the game. 

"I was completely wrong, I shouldn't have addressed the referee. I didn't feel it was abusive. There was no bad language or anything used. There was no swear language used."

McConville added that he did not want to disclose what he said to Tyrone official Eannetta "because I want this to be fair to the referee. He would need to have a right to reply."

"When I went on to the hearings committee the other night, I was told that if the referee felt that I was being aggressive or abusive, then that was it, the line was drawn there," McConville continued.

"I might be 48 years of age but I learnt a very solemn lesson this week, that the referee is always right. There's not much I can do about it. I have to lick my wounds. It's a mistake on my part and it's come back to bite me. I'll put it down to experience and I'll try to move on and learn from it."

McConville would like to see a mechanism in place which would facilitate dialogue between a team and the referee following a game. 

"Referees have an impossible job," said McConville.

"I've learnt my lesson. I've got an earful from [my wife Darina] when I went home. I got it from the kids who weren't happy. I took three or four days to not go into my mother because I thought she'll have forgotten about it. I went in and got the wrath of Margaret on Friday.

"When you read it, that you got four weeks for being abusive towards a referee... I wouldn't abusive to anyone on the street or away from the football pitch, so it shouldn't be like that on the football pitch. I have to hold my hands up."

McConville missed the O'Byrne Cup Shield Final defeat to Louth at the weekend and will also be absent for the league games against Westmeath and Clare. Along with the two-point defeat to Sligo, Wicklow lost their opening round Division 3 game to Down.