Michael Duignan Time has come to bring in semi-pro referees

There have been too many controversies to ignore calls for well-compensated officials

WITH the round-robin completed in Munster and Leinster, we have had some fantastic hurling. The time for reflection will come at the end of the Championship, when it will become fully clearer what tweaks are needed. The scheduling with some teams having to play three or four times on the spin is one issue. Relegation in Leinster, and not in Munster, is another. The fact that after so many thrilling games, only nine matches now remain has also been a talking point.

For me, a broader issue – which ties in to the whole Championship – is the match-day controversies involving referees and his team of match officials, umpires included.

With the time and money invested into the inter-county scene now, it’s little wonder officials have come under ferocious scrutiny. In the past year, Brian Gavin and Barry Kelly stepped away. Between them, they had refereed eight All-Ireland finals.

I’m friendly with Brian and he became frustrated because referees’ tests are on physical ability – how many runs an official can make in a certain time, how much ground can be covered. While obviously important, he believes it all boils down to whether a referee can make the right decision under pressure – like players in many ways.

There is the constant assessment – being shown clips of matches, detailing where you might have gone wrong – all for a bit of mileage on match day. Now if the referee gets 50 cent a mile, the four umpires get nothing except a bit of grub on the way home. Say a referee gets €100, that has to pay for five meals after the game, though many supporters believe they don’t deserve a hot meal at all, depending on their performance in the preceding game.

As a player I would have always pushed the limits with a referee on the basis that you felt you might get one decision over the course of a game. The top players, the top teams have always done it. Whether it was Brian Whelahan or Henry Shefflin, they were all in the ref’s ear.

When I’m on live television or radio, I call it as I see it. At times, I have the benefit of a replay to inform my final judgment.

As time has gone on, I have far more sympathy for referees because they can be the last to know. The game is so much harder now to referee, because of the fitness levels of players and the physicality, the amount of high tackles and players using their spare arm – there is so much going on.

With the intensity and the pace and the collisions, there is pressure on a referee to let it flow when he could blow almost every time for a free.

That’s why I think there needs to be a semi-professional panel of elite referees. Backed up by the increased use of technology to help them get the big decisions right. I said it before some of this year’s major controversies had occured – the ‘ghost goal’ awarded against Waterford by an umpire and the wrongful dismissal of Clare’s David Reidy last Sunday.

Take the top dozen, or so, officials in the country and ensure they are properly compensated and have better support structures to enable them to carry out such an important job to the best of their ability. Explore how the expanded use of a television match official or replays can be of assistance – a quick look at a replay in either instance would have defused two major controversies.

The whole process is public in rugby when they go to the TMO. Why not do the same? Make it transparent. Say Brian Gavin was in the ground at Ennis with a monitor last Sunday for the Clare-Limerick game in that role. James Owens could have asked him a simple question: ‘Will you have a look at the incident involving the Clare 12 and the Limerick 18?’

The live match cameras don’t catch everything – but they catch a hell of a lot.

For the Gleeson incident – where the umpire thought the ball had crossed the line when it clearly didn’t – all referee Alan Kelly would have had to do was ask for a quick video review.

Having a semi-professional panel of referees would surely encourage the use of technology to get the big calls right. It’s about making the referee’s job easier, more attractive. Of course there will always be an element of human error but that might also help to attract ex-players into a referee’s pool which is too shallow at the moment.

I am keen to protect the amateur and volunteer nature of our games but when head honchos in the GAA and Gaelic Players Association are well paid permanent officials, it’s time to take radical action to improve the lot of referees. James Owens took advice from his umpires last weekend. He got it right on Tom Condon, but wrong on Reidy.

There was the bizarre circumstance where he was called back a second time for the Reidy call, when you wondered was it coming from a sideline official. You can see him clearly saying “are we sure lads?” So, it’s really tough on him.

Being an umpire in hurling is so difficult – a free dinner just doesn’t cover it.

Offer better terms and conditions to match officials. Maybe that involves an overnight for a referee. Devise a proper rate for Championship matches where umpires are well looked after – say €100 each for the day. Train them up properly and make them part of the whole process.

I know you can’t do it at club level but you have to start somewhere.

There needs to a different approach to raise standards, broaden the pool, and ensure the big calls are the right calls.