Brendan Cawley: People build platforms on constantly being negative towards GAA referees

Cawley said Gaelic football's new rules have helped increase player respect for referees. 

Referee Brendan Cawley admitted there were two decisions from this year's All-Ireland football which in hindsight he believes were harsh. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Brendan Cawley was a line umpire for a Kildare junior championship game played at Hawkfield recently. As he walked off the pitch, Cawley, who refereed his first All-Ireland football final this year, "got a bit of abuse".

"Another club were playing on the other pitch in Hawkfield, and three ladies turned around to me and go, 'my God, from an All-Ireland final to this'. That's, that's the reality of it," Cawley told Irish Examiner podcast The Gaelic Football Show.