Refs adjust to an altered landscape...
Officials happy to play cards they are dealt
SO, what’s it like as a referee with Gaelic games being played behind closed doors? You’d imagine that match officials don’t miss the verbal abuse from the stand, the noise of the crowd and a stadium erupting over a decision.
It would be understandable if they didn’t miss the pressure of a partisan venue where every whistle is like running the gauntlet.
Yet GAA national match officials manager Donal Smyth explains that referees share the same yearning for all things associated with big occasions as players — the hustle, bustle and intensity of matchday, even a packed and vocal stand.
So the contentious Government decision to ban crowds from GAA matches is not something that has changed referees’ approach to handling games?
‘It takes from the atmosphere alright. It can be a bit surreal. But once the game is up and running and things are at full tilt, you’re concentrating on the game and the next decision. It shouldn’t make much difference,’ he said.
‘Okay you miss the buzz of a big game. But for the likes of us who have been doing matches it’s not much different. You’re used to being in Ballinabrackey with 10 people at it – it makes no difference. The only thing I’ll say is, you hear the one voice the whole time! The thing about having a big crowd in Navan is you wouldn’t hear that one voice.’
That voice now belongs to one of the limited number of coaches allowed on the sideline, or an over-enthusiastic substitute who can now be found in the stand at county grounds as club championships come to the boil.
The curiosity is wondering if the absence of crowds is a factor in the decisions made on the day.
Last Sunday, Barry Redmond took charge of the Wexford senior hurling championship final. The game was only minutes old when Shelmaliers’ wing-back Conor Walsh set off on a slaloming solo run before being crudely stopped in his tracks with, what looked from the press box, a frontal challenge. The same player was so roughed up by the challenge that he had to be replaced. Yet play went on without the usual outcry from the stand.
Would a howl from the supporters have made a difference? Caused the referee to question his own decision to let play continue? Who knows? Either way, Redmond’s approach was to let play develop as much as possible and taken as a whole, emerged with credit from the game.
The TG4 cameras were there along with a national spotlight but the eerie silence in the empty, cavernous surrounds of Wexford Park meant that it must have brought a different type of pressure.
Smyth explains that the mindset of a referee is to park distractions outside the whitewash.
‘For me, the pressure is before the game. When you throw the ball in, the game is on and you’re concentrating.
‘Any pressure is internal. Playing or refereeing, you shut the crowd off, take it from there. People deal with pressure in different ways. It’s the build up to a game that can cause as much.
‘Looking at the TV and the reports around the country, it’s been going pretty well. I think they’ve been performing very well. But, and there is always a but, when it’s coming towards the tail-end of the championship, things will start getting more serious. Early on it was a novelty and everything was going well, now it’s getting to the business end and things are getting more difficult. The cut and thrust is more intense.’
Given his standing after refereeing last year’s drawn All-Ireland football final between Dublin and Kerry, David Gough made headlines back in June with his decision to opt out of the 2020 season as long as social distancing is in place.
He outlined his own worries about sport and any return to play. However, so far there has been no domino effect of officials opting out.
Smyth is asked if he has any other instances of officials not returning.
‘I don’t know of anybody else. But it’s a personal decision.
‘It depends on your circumstances at home, who you’re going home to, who you’re bringing to the match or if you’ve elderly parents or a child with underlying issues, that you have to take all of that into account.
‘The majority of fellas are delighted to be back out reffing our games. Having somewhere to go on a Sunday and during the week. If we’re not enjoying our national sport and our games, whether that’s refereeing or playing, then we shouldn’t be there. Most of them are really enjoying it.’
And yet that uncertainty will always exist in sport in a time of pandemic.
‘You can only go by the advice. The HSE will decide who is a close contact and who is a casual contact. Mostly refereeing is casual contact. You’re not in their vicinity for a length of time.’
No more than inter-county players, the date of September 14 is a significant one for the intercounty panel of referees.
‘We have a plan, a template in place. We’re very much like the inter-county players, looking at getting back on September 14. Doing our fitness tests before the league kicks off on October 17. That will lead then to the picking of the Championship panels.
‘We’re doing stuff online, various training and sports psychology – Nollaig O’Sullivan has helped there. Upskilling them all the time.
‘Things will change, things will get better or drop back.
‘If every referee takes personal responsibility and does everything the right way, and the players the same, then we all should be in a good place.
‘If we’re not as tight in our personal behaviour, we might be in a different place.’
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