Refs a great but vulnerable resource

KEVIN MORAN called referees ‘the great untapped resource within the GAA when it comes to concussion’.

Moran is a consultant surgeon who also serves as Donegal’s team doctor. His point was a stimulating one: in 95 per cent of cases resulting in concussion or another serious injury in the GAA, no doctor will be present, he said.

There will always be a referee, however, and that authority figure could be used by the GAA in addressing concussion. Were referees properly trained, argued Moran, they could order the removal of a player who was showing signs consistent with concussion.

It is, theoretically, an imaginative way of trying to address a problem whose seriousness is beginning to be acknowledged.

But there is one big problem with it: the culture of disrespect towards referees in Gaelic games. There is no party to a football or hurling match treated more unfairly. They are routinely abused verbally and occasionally physically in club matches.

On big inter-county Championship days, they are ripped asunder by lazy, ignorant pundits, while some of the decisions arrived at by disciplinary hearings in Croke Park have also completely undermined them.

When players and managers refuse to respect their decision on a booking or a sending off, why should we suppose they will respect a referee who orders off a concussed player?

Moran’s suggestion should be the start of a serious discussion, but that cannot happen while referees and their authority remain vulnerable to hot-heads at every level.