Jack Anderson: Before backing VAR, subject it to the Seamus Darby test

Watching GAA games, even at the elite level, it is always striking how alone referees are, and how many tasks they have, and all, largely, without technological assistance.

EXTRA HELP: Sean Stack did a great job last Saturday in the Cork-Limerick game, but elite referees recently asked the GAA authorities for more assistance to perform their duties. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

The Canadian Chekov, Alice Munro, died this week. A brilliant short story writer, she was not a sports fan, but an enduring theme of her work was a sense of place. Engrossed in watching last weekend’s Munster hurling championship game between Limerick and Cork - the players’ efforts, the outburst of joy from the Rebels – it reminded me that the GAA is also ultimately about place. As Munro once said, “In your life there are a few places, or maybe only the one place, where something happened, and then there are all the other places.” 

For those of us in Oz, the game occurred early on Sunday morning. Sunday in Melbourne is the busiest day of the week for those of us with sporty kids. In Australia, you name it, there is a sport for everyone. Our kids play basketball, netball, hockey, and cricket. As my GAA-loving family from Limerick say (half-jokingly), “was it for this the wild geese spread?” What you notice taking the kids to events is not just the facilities that Australians have but how organised they are in administering youth sport.