'The standard of refereeing at the moment is cat' – Ben O’Connor
REFEREEING IS CAT: Ben O'Connor stands for a portrait during the launch of TG4's award-winning Laochra Gael series at the Light House Cinema in Dublin. The Gaelic sport biography series returns with eight new GAA legends profiled for Season 23. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
The promotion of hurling is being damaged by over-zealous refereeing and pressure on match officials to call fouls, Ben O’Connor has claimed.
Cork’s three-time All-Ireland SHC medalist and 2023 All-Ireland U20 winning manager has long been a proponent of the physical nature of the game. However, he was disillusioned by a number of instances in the Limerick-Clare and Cork-Kilkenny Division 1A games this past weekend.
O’Connor argued Limerick defender Diarmaid Byrnes should not have been sent off if it was for the clash with Clare captain Tony Kelly. He also insisted calls for Kelly to be sent off for making contact with Adam English’s helmet earlier in the game were off-the-top.
“At the moment, the standard of refereeing at the moment is cat and it is ruining our game,” said O’Connor.
“I’ll give you a couple of incidents now, the way it is. If Diarmaid Byrnes’s is a sending off, I couldn’t see anything in it anyway. Diarmaid Byrnes gave away a free, he done exactly what you’d ask a player to do, get your leg in over the ball to get your body over it – he done that.
“The Clare player threw himself down to the ground as if he was shot – there must have been a sniper above in the stand. The next thing there was pushing and shoving. I saw no slap being thrown and Byrnes got a red card.
“You take Tony Kelly. They were calling for Tony Kelly’s head for the slap. Like, it’s supposed to be the fastest field game in the world and it was a split second. Tony Kelly did not need to touch that fella, Adam English in the head. And in fairness to Adam English, he got up straight away when he got the tap. What made it look worse of course was the drop of blood.”
O’Connor was left baffled by another incident in Cork’s game the evening before where Kilkenny’s Harry Shine was ushered off the field due to a cut.
“I was above in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday night, the linesman went into the field and took the Kilkenny corner forward off because he had a cut on his knee, he was bleeding from the knee.
“So he took that corner-forward off. That corner-forward was off for about six minutes. That could have been the time that the corner-forward got three balls into his hand and got three goals. You just don’t know, but just because he had a drop of blood on his knee?
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“So we are on about promoting hurling, like. Fellas are mad for a bit of activity, a bit of physical battle. This thing of players diving and looking for handy frees? I think we have to get off the referee’s backs, as in the fella above in the stand ticking his box that, ‘he gave a free for that, perfect.’
"Let the referee go away and referee the match whatever way he thinks and then you’ll have people watching the game.
“You see Americans coming to watch matches. They are fascinated by it, how fast it is, how physical it is. There’s nobody getting badly hurt. So that is how you promote the game, is by letting the game flow and don’t be blowing up for frees.”
Cian Kenny’s shoulder making contact with Ciarán Joyce’s head in the first half was also highlighted in the aftermath of the game but it was not a red card offence for the Newtownshandrum man.
“In game (real) time, I thought it was a good hit. But at that time, he did try to hit him on the shoulder. He didn’t go in to try to drive into his chest. I just think it’s all timing and referees are under too much pressure from fellas above in the stand looking down.
“Again, the poor corner forward for Kilkenny who had to go off and get his knee wiped. I don’t know where the game is going. Every fella is wearing a helmet now. If you got a bang in the head, that’s what the helmets are for.”
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