Top brass shut eyes to desire for TV ref

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail suggested this week that there was little likelihood of the GAA pursuing the option of a television match official in the near future.

‘Anything that slows down the tempo of the game is something that I personally, and I think the GAA generally, would be slow to move towards and I don’t think there’s an appetite yet for video referees at other levels than what we currently have,’ suggested the GAA president.

Fair enough, he is entitled to his opinion and he is not alone in that stance, with the GAA Director General Páraic Duffy having already indicated his personal opposition on pretty much the same grounds.

What nags, though, is the suggestion that there is ‘no appetite’ for such an innovation, when there has been no shortage of prominent GAA personalities, including inter-county managers who have indicated the contrary.

More specifically, the GAA’s former head of referees Pat McEneaney has claimed in the past that the introduction of a TMO in the GAA was a ‘no brainer’.

Even more significantly, the majority of the current intercounty panel of referees indicated at a meeting prior to the start of the season that they too were in favour of such a development.

That invites an obvious observation; if those who are directly impacted have an ‘appetite’ for it, isn’t it rather strange that those hunger pangs have not been felt by those who can do something about it.