Owens ready for a special day as he handles All-Ireland
IT WAS far from the madding crowd for James Owens in Bellefield on Saturday when he presided over an Intermediate football meeting involving two of his close neighbours, Ferns St. Aidan’s and HWH-Bunclody.
There was no more than 200 in attendance as the Askamore-Kilrush clubman did his duty at grassroots level in advance of a very special occasion next Sunday when he takes charge of his second All-Ireland Senior hurling final between holders Galway and Limerick in Croke Park.
It certainly will be a major difference to have at least an extra 82,000 people reacting to every blast of Owens’ whistle, but he is well used to the big occasions at this stage and his appointment is richly deserved.
Just like a player starting out in a fledgling career, I was reminded on Saturday that inter-county referees have to start somewhere, and for every major game there are literally hundreds of non-descript outings to handle along the way.
Three years ago James had the honour of refereeing his first All-Ireland Senior decider when Kilkenny defeated Galway, and he has also been the man in the middle for finals in Minor (2007), Under-21 (2008) and Club (2015).
He did himself no harm at all in the eyes of the Central Referees’ Appointments Committee with his assured handling of the recent drawn semi-final between Galway and Clare, while his earlier championship assignments were Cork v. Limerick, Clare v. Limerick, Kilkenny v. Offaly, and the replayed Leinster final featuring Galway and Kilkenny.
It’s also going to be a big day for James’ umpires, but again it will be a second All-Ireland Senior final for three of the team: his brother David, Ian Plunkett of Marshalstown-Castledockrell, and James Dunbar from Askamore-Kilrush.
Joe Kelly of Naomh Eanna will be the fourth man on the posts next Sunday, meaning that three of the umpires are referees themselves which has to be a positive move.
After all, criticism of the men in black often revolves around their choice of umpires, amid claims that some are ill-suited for the role.
James has chosen wisely, and in wishing him well I know that it will be a proud day for his club and the general G.A.A. public in Wexford to see him in charge of proceedings.
It was most unfortunate that the announcement of his appointment was overshadowed for a brief period by the extraordinary ‘use me or lose me’ outburst by Westmeath referee James McGrath, who resigned from the inter-county panel in protest after being overlooked for the big gig.
It was even more surprising that RTE decided to give him air time, sending Marty Morrissey to Tyrellspass on the same day for an interview on the sports segment of the television news that was cringeworthy to put it mildly.
From what I saw on social media, there was precious little sympathy for McGrath who seemed to think he had a divine right to be appointed.
I could perhaps understand his disappointment if he had never refereed a final before, but he has already officiated at the replays in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Perhaps he was peeved for that reason though, as he may have felt he was only the second choice in those years.
If RTE really wanted to cover a refereeing story, they would have been better off in my view sending a camera down to the club grounds in Ballyroebuck to talk to the Askamore-Kilrush personnel about what it means to have one of their own in charge of the biggest hurling game of the year.
McGrath shouldn’t have hogged the limelight regardless of how he was feeling, but he will be quickly forgotten and doesn’t deserve any sympathy in my view.
With the clock ticking down to the big day in Croke Park, all that’s left to do is to re-iterate my best wishes to James who I have watched develop from his earliest appointments on the Coiste na nOg scene.
We may not have a hurling team good enough to contest an All-Ireland right now, but our top referee is the best in the land.