Big weekend in store for Kerry Referees Society

THE Kerry branch of the Irish Soccer Referees Society reach a unique milestone in their in their proud history next weekend when they celebrate their 40th Anniversary.

To mark the occasion they are holding a gala dinner on Saturday night, September 9 in The Rose Hotel Tralee. In conjunction with the festivities there will be a National Council meeting at the same venue on Saturday September 8.

The National President of the Soccer Referees Society along with the general secretary will be in Tralee for the weekend along with prominent members of the FAI. It will be an occasion for Kerry Society to take a trip down memory lane and rekindle old friendships and meet up with colleagues they may not have seen for a while.

The profile of the Kerry Referee’s Society has reached new heights in recent years with the standard of refereeing going up at a very steady pace.

This would not have been possible but for the sterling work of a lot of people who are working tirelessly behind the scenes putting recruitment drives in place that has put a lot of emphasis at getting officials up to the very highest standard.

Everyone involved in football know it is a thankless job with hurlers on the ditch having their often biased opinions on officials and many people expose the negative side of affairs and failing to acknowledge just how much progress has been made with the standard of refereeing in the county over the past decade especially.

I have been involved in the game in Kerry for over 40 years and was a referee myself back in the late 1980s and I have stayed in touch with the scene over the years and the progress that has been made is highly admirable.

The most pleasing aspect of more recent developments is that now clubs are showing a lot more respect for officials at games. There will be always moaners on the sideline, but in general most of those involved in the game appreciate the enormity of a referee’s job and most of the time show them the respect they deserve.

Back in the early days it was very difficult to get enough referees to officiate at games and often members of the KDL helped out when the scarcity became too prevalent.

Thankfully all that has changed now and the Kerry Referees Society are doing a great job ensuring that their members are given every chance to perform at the highest level.

This has had its success story with Kevin O’Regan and Stuart Templeman getting on the League of Ireland panel of referees and went on to perform with distinction at League of Ireland games.

In recent times both of these officials have retired from the whistle and now the push is on to get referees of their calibre who hopefully can follow in their footsteps.

A lot of emphasis has been put on the quality of refereeing in recent years with referees observers going around the county looking at the performance of officials and reporting back their findings so that the standard of refereeing can be categorised.

James McCarthy is the FAI Referees Observer, while Michael Fox O’Connor is the Kerry Referees observer.

Kevin O’Regan will be joining Michael Fox O’Connor in October as a referee Observer for the KDL.

The 7 abiding characteristics a good referee should possess are, 1 Competence, 2 Compassion, 3 Confidence, 4 Communication, 5, Consistency, 6, Courage, 7, Conviction.