Are the Dubs really reffed differently?

IT’S a perfectly understandable thing: instinctively we root for the underdog. It’s not so much an Irish thing as an human thing. An upset is much more fun to watch than a march to victory along expected lines for the overwhelming favourites.

Perhaps that’s why so many of us get so riled up when refereeing decisions go against those challenging the Dublin senior footballers. You look at all the advantages they have – money, power, the best players in the game, two home games in the Super 8s – and the idea of them getting another, courtesy of the referee, is just too much to take.

The reaction online – and, yes, online isn’t necessarily indicative of anything other than itself – to Conor Lane’s decision not to award Donegal a penalty or even a free after Paddy McGrath was fouled last Saturday evening was incredulous.

Whatever about it being penalty – it was probably marginally outsize the square – the Cork official certainly should have given the Tir Chonaill men a free once the advantage didn’t accrue. It left many people to wonder aloud whether the Dubs are reffed differently to everybody else?

They do seem to get the benefit of the doubt more than others. There were a couple of decisions that went their way in the National League final this year. You can even go back to the 2016 semi-final when they escaped sanction for a pretty obvious foul on Peter Crowley.

It’s easy to see why people might think the Dubs are reffed differently, but there’s probably a more simple explanation. Dublin play the majority of their games at home and the home team will always get the benefit of the doubt from refs, swayed (subconsciously) by crowds.

So are the Dubs reffed differently? Probably not, but the fact they play at home so often has its advantages in more ways than one.