Davy: GAA should give lifetime bans for attacks on referees
Coach vows to examine own conduct
WATERFORD hurling manager and Ireland’s Fittest Family star Davy Fitzgerald has called for a lifetime ban for anyone who assaults a referee – and said he is now re-examining his own confrontational style.
He was reacting to a series of alleged attacks on referees in Roscommon, Wexford, Mayo and other counties in recent weeks.
Fitzgerald, 51, reflected that while he would never assault a referee, he has been confrontational with them and may need to change his own behaviour.
His comments come after Roscommon GAA banned a person for two years for an alleged assault on a club referee, who was taken to hospital. Some within the GAA had called for the person responsible to be banned for life for the assault, which allegedly occurred at an under-17 club game.
‘I think anyone that goes near a referee or hits a referee should be probably banned for life, gone. I think that’s it, over – end of story,’ said Fitzgerald, who was speaking at a press announcement confirming that Londis supermarkets will sponsor RTÉ programme Ireland’s Fittest Family for the fourth year in a row.
Reacting to a weekend-long strike by Roscommon referees in response to the alleged assault at the club game, Fitzgerald said he hopes there isn’t a wider strike across the country.
He commented: ‘I hope they don’t go on strike, I think what needs to be done is anyone that assaults a referee just needs to be dealt with severely.’
Yesterday, St Joseph’s GAA Club in Wexford announced it had also moved to ban a team mentor, following alleged assaults on a referee and umpire on Sunday.
‘Following a meeting of the executive committee of St Joseph’s GAA Club, a decision has been taken to suspend, indefinitely, the club member at the centre of the alleged incident at our junior football game on Sunday morning. This suspension is with immediate effect,’ said a club statement.
Fitzgerald became well-known for his noisy sideline confrontations as manager of Clare and Waterford, but said that it should never lead to violence.
‘I do not think it is right that any referee should be treated like that or assaulted. I am one of the ones that will fight with the referees and have arguments here and there, but under no circumstances should there be any referee or any person assaulted like that. That’s for definite,’ he said.
However, he said he is now examining his own sideline behaviour.
‘I was one of the biggest culprits,’ he admitted. ‘I would give out left, right and centre and I’d give it to them. Maybe I need to have a look at myself and try not to be that bad. It’s hard if you see a very bad decision and you can’t help yourself, but maybe I shouldn’t.
‘But maybe if I got an opportunity to talk to the referee afterwards in a good environment, 24 hours afterwards, or something. I think the communication lines is something that we actually probably should explore.’
One Kilkenny referee said yesterday that attacks are becoming more frequent.
‘Unless somebody grabs the bull by the horns and starts to do something, and takes things seriously, we’re going to be discussing this week in, week out that there’s an incident after happening,’ referee Martin Quilty told Newstalk’s
Lunchtime Live. ‘It sends out the wrong message.’
He said proper sanctions need to be brought in.
‘The organisation itself needs to come down heavily on aggressors,’ Mr Quilty said.
He also said he has been attacked both physically and verbally in the course of his work.
‘My first experience with abuse was when I was physically assaulted doing an under-12 game. It progressed up then, you’d be called every name under the sun when you’re on the sidelines,’ he said. ‘I’ve been assaulted three times – once when I was doing [under-] 12, two when I was doing adult games.
‘The majority of this has been GAA games; there’s very few games that I’ve refereed actually at camogie level that I have been subjected to abuse.’
Yesterday, the chair of Wexford GAA called for a Governmentfunded ad campaign to promote respect for referees.
Micheál Martin, who is no relation to the Taoiseach, told the Irish Daily Mail that the Football Association had a very effective campaign in Britain several years ago to promote respect at soccer games and that it is time for something similar in Ireland.
‘It is a societal problem, across all sports, this challenge to authority when passions are heightened. It’s time for Sport Ireland to come together with the sporting bodies to develop an effective education campaign,’ he said
His comments comes as gardaí continue to investigate the alleged assault on a GAA referee in Wexford on Sunday, although Mr Martin stressed that he is speaking generally and not on any specific incident.
‘Called every name under the sun’