«DON’T MISS: JOHN O’MAHONY
MANAGING a team is an emotional roller-coaster. I know this only too well. When things are not going well, you can often feel that the whole world is against you and that takes the form of referees and match officials, especially when your team is under-performing.
We saw it live and in colour at Hyde Park last weekend when Kevin McStay threw his toys out of the pram — and a ball at an official — in full view of the cameras and all the spectators.
McStay had felt aggrieved at a couple of dubious decisions against his team coming up to half-time. Roscommon were under-performing. Kevin was probably wondering why his players couldn’t catch a break.
The following afternoon, Cian O’Neill claimed that the dismissal of Daniel Flynn was a shocking decision. Both himself and Kevin may well have had a point. But there are right ways and wrong ways of going about things. And in all my years watching football, I have never seen a referee or linesman change their mind after being shouted at or remonstrated with.
On Saturday last, the incident before half-time became the story of the match with everyone wondering what would be the outcome for Kevin McStay. From a Rosthe common point of view, they would have been better off calmly getting into the dressing room and assessing if there was a way to turn the game around.
When players see their manager lose the plot on the sideline, it can lead to a riot and a complete lack of discipline.
In my view, it would be more beneficial if the manager had a quiet word with the linesman as they make their way off at halftime, asking why he made that particular ruling on some incident or other. Why he made a certain interpretation.
What the manager is doing if he does that is sowing the seeds of respect. And when your team next faces a 50-50 decision as a result, they might get a rub of the green. Human nature will always mean people react positively if they are reasoned with and react negatively if they are being shouted at.
It is no coincidence that the calmest managers on the sideline are all still in the Championship — Jim Gavin, Éamonn Fitzmaurice, Mickey Harte and Kevin Walsh. Two of them are already in the semi-finals.
There is, of course, plenty that GAA can do to make things transparent. And if there was more transparency, managers might not get as annoyed.
Referees should be given the opportunity to explain gamechanging decisions. Perhaps not in the immediate aftermath of the game, when emotions are running high, but in the days that follow the match when everyone has calmed down. If a referee can explain clearly to a manager why he made certain decisions against his team, he would no longer feel that everyone is against him.
And referee assessors should be made available to team managers in the days after the match, too. I have made this suggestion a number of times when I was involved in inter-county management. It would deepen the understanding of why referees make certain decisions.
And it would be beneficial if referees did admit when they made wrong calls. Maurice Deegan conceded that he made a mistake after the 2016 All-Ireland final replay when he failed to black card John Small. And he explained why he got it wrong, as he was unsighted to the incident.
Everyone makes mistakes. Referees make mistakes just as much as players and managers. At the end of the season, a referee might be cut from the Championship panel because of one bad game. Would it not be better for everyone if they were just taken off the panel for a couple of games, so they could learn from their mistakes?
There have been a lot of calls for a second referee on the field, especially in light of what happened last weekend. I don’t think that would solve anything and just add to the confusion. There are more than enough officials in and around the field — especially now that referees and linesmen are miked up to each other.
What needs to happen is for everyone to communicate with each other — and do it in a respectful manner. This will go some way to deepening understanding between officials and managers — and it will mean that team managers no longer feel that everyone is against them.
Calmest bosses are still in the Championship