Coldrick the man in the middle between Kerry and Armagh again 20 years on

Referee David Coldrick. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Twenty years after refereeing the Kerry-Armagh All-Ireland quarter-final, David Coldrick will again officiate when the counties meet in Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday.

In his last season at inter-county level, the Meath man will bring down the curtain on his career at the highest level of Gaelic football as he reaches the enforced retirement age of 50 for inter-county referees in 2026.

Blackhall Gaels clubman Coldrick took charge of his first senior championship game in 2003 when London faced Galway in a Connacht opener.

He has been the man in the middle for four All-Ireland finals – 2007 Kerry v Cork, 2010 Cork v Down, 2015 Dublin v Kerry and 2020 Dublin v Mayo.

In this championship, Coldrick has supervised the Leinster SFC final between Westmeath and Dublin, the Mayo-Roscommon Connacht semi-final and the Mayo-Monaghan All-Ireland SFC Round 1 game.

In this year’s league, he officiated the Donegal-Kerry Division 1 game in Ballyshannon as well as the Mayo-Armagh fixture in Castlebar.

In 2023, a failed fitness test ruled him out of the championship, although he continued to assist as a linesman. He refereed the New York-Leitrim Connacht quarter-final in Gaelic Park but upon returning did not pass the examination and therefore missed out on the championship selection panel.

He later expressed to the BBC’s GAA Social that he felt “very let down” by the GAA. 

"I didn't like failing the fitness test but the problem was that I wasn't to be given a second chance. Where in life do you not get a second chance? I just felt as well... 20-plus years’ service to the GAA, and this was how I was treated.

"That was the lowest point in my refereeing career. And then it was all kind of splattered over papers and whatnot."

In the 2006 game, Coldrick sent off Paul Galvin for a second yellow card offence and issued a straight red to Armagh maor uisce, midfielder John Toal, who was injured at the time.

In his day job, Coldrick is chief risk officer and head of actuarial function at Saol Assurance.