BLIGHT ON THE GAME
Fear that recent incidents are scaring referees away
IT’S a sign of the times when a TG4 Sunday afternoon double-bill starts with the closest thing to a public service message. Before the ball was thrown in on the Mayo senior football championship quarter-finals, GAA Beo host Micheál Ó Domhnaill addressed the burning topic of the day.
Turning to vastly experienced official Maurice Deegan, he asked about the rolling crisis that is the verbal and physical abuse of referees throughout the country and some of the more recent flashpoints that have gained national attention.
Such as Kevin Naughton in Roscommon being felled in an underage football game which prompted a strike in the county the following weekend and a 96week ban proposed for the offending party. Or an underage hurling game in Kerry being called off due to verbal abuse of an official
Or last Sunday in Wexford, where an official Garda statement was issued when a referee needed medical attention after
“We could look at bringing in a VAR system”
being accosted by a mentor in the junior football game in Whiterock Hill, between St Joseph’s and Our Lady’s Island.
Strike action in Wexford was avoided when the county board intervened to call a crisis meeting of key stakeholders and Deegan admitted that the preponderance of incidents on social media is only going to adversely affect referee recruitment.
‘To be honest with you, it’s a bad thing. If you’re looking to recruit referees, just take that one for instance. It’s going to turn referees off straight away.
‘What’s after happening over the last six or seven weeks, especially at club level, all over the country – I know Wexford have started a great initiative last week where they’re shaking hands before the game. My question is, will they shake hands with the referee after the game?’
In Wexford, an emergency meeting between the county executive, the county’s referees and the referees administration committee came up with a range of significant proposals to avert any strike action.
Clubs were ordered to hold immediate workshops for mentors from under-11 to adult level and follow up with an evaluation of their conduct towards match officials to the county executive by the following day. Any club that does not comply will have their fixtures postponed.
Wexford are also looking for more stringent punishments and for the GAA to remove the 96week maximum ban for a verbal or physical threat to an official and replace it with debarment and/or expulsion from the GAA.
To better help that referees decisions are understood by the public, Deegan pointed to the example on TG4 where a live mic was used on referee John O’Halloran for the Kerry county hurling final.
‘There was an initiative done with yourselves where the referee was mic’d up, and everyone understood exactly what the referees were giving the frees for.
‘That’s a good initiative to start off with. You could also look at taking the time off the referee, like what they do in ladies football which I also think is a good thing. And if you really want to go down the road of it, we could look at bringing in a VAR-type system on big decisions.
‘But to be honest, at the end of the day, the referee is human. And he’s going to make mistakes. The very same as the players are going to make mistakes.’
Deegan added: ‘I don’t think referees would mind being mic’d up because they feel then they are getting their decisions out there. It’s clear to everybody. Everybody knows exactly then what the frees and the fouls are.
‘At the end of the day, the big problems at the minute are at juvenile level. You’re not going to be mic-ing up referees at juvenile level. There has been games called off in Waterford, two in Wexford, where referees have been both physically and verbally abused,’ he said.
TG4 relayed the ugly scenes at the end of last year’s Connacht club senior football championship semi-final when referee Jerome Henry was manhandled and verbally abused by various Mountbellew-Moylough players.
This was after a controversial call went against the Galway champions late-on against Pádraig Pearses of Roscommon.
Deegan added: ‘This is what we don’t want to see. This is a blight on our game.’
Deegan pointed to the recent survey of referee treatment, conducted by members of the University of Ulster School of Psychology in Coleraine and how it is only the tip of the iceberg.
‘Dr Noel Brick [did] a survey – 438 referees were surveyed. Of them, 23% were physically abused; 93% were verbally abused. Half of this is not being reported by referees in their report because a lot of the time they don’t get the backing of their county board. At national level it is being followed through but at
“Recruitment will be a big, big problem”
club level it is not. Our culture has to change towards refereeing. Both county boards, and the clubs, have to be made responsible and accountable, he added.
‘We’re going to struggle for referees in two or three years’ time.
‘There is all talk about putting two referees in to referee matches – we’re struggling to put one in to referee matches.
‘So recruitment is going to be a big, big problem down the line if we do not protect referees,’ Deegan said.