FINAL BLAST
Brian Gavin made his name as a referee willing to let hurlers hurl but, at 40, he’s calling a halt...
Exclusive interview with retiring ref Brian Gavin
IT wasn’t planned but it just so happened that Brian Gavin’s final inter-county match took place at the same venue that holds the best memories of his 14 years with a whistle. Despite taking charge of his four All-Ireland finals, that venue wasn’t Croke Park.
The Offaly man’s most memorable match was a qualifier in midsummer. It was no ordinary qualifier. Anyone fortunate enough to be at Nowlan Park for Kilkenny’s clash with Tipperary in 2013 won’t forget it. Not for the quality of the hurling, rather the atmosphere. These two heavyweights weren’t supposed to meet in July, and the tension reflected that.
‘We pulled into the ground at around half-five and almost everyone was already in the ground, an hour and a half before throwin,’ Gavin recalled.
‘We went out on the pitch around six o’clock and you could feel the tension in the air, it was coming down from the stands.
‘It was the die-hard club people from Tipp and Kilkenny. I remember they announced the national anthem and you could hear a pin drop. I never felt tension like it before, even before an All-Ireland. It was like two of the great heavyweights squaring off.’
Last summer, it was a qualifier between Kilkenny and Limerick. It didn’t have the same atmosphere. When Gavin went into the dressing-room afterwards, he didn’t know that he had taken charge of his last county match. Over the past six months, though, he has given his vocation a bit of thought. Last Wednesday morning, he emailed Croke Park, informing them that he wanted to be taken off the county panel.
In most walks of life, Gavin would be considered a young man at 40. But as an inter-county referee, he discovered that he was sprinting after lads half his age. And having been the man in the middle for four All-Irelands, his appetite wasn’t what it once was.
‘There was a time in my refereeing career when I didn’t think I would get one All-Ireland, but I got four in six years. Maybe my appetite wasn’t what it once was. It’s a huge commitment, especially if you run the line in a game. It might be three hours to Cork and three hours back. You could be away for ten hours on a Sunday.’
Gavin’s first All-Ireland is recalled for one incident. Early in the first half, he intervened in a bit of pushing and shoving between Kilkenny and Tipperary players and ended up getting hit by Tommy Walsh’s hurley.
It is a moment that will follow the Clara native into old age.
‘It is still brought up alright. People still take great pleasure in showing me the incident. Long after my career is forgotten about, they will still be talking about that!’ he says with a chuckle.
‘I didn’t know what had happened at the time. I signalled for a 20-metre free and there was a bit of argy-bargy. Somewhere in the middle of it, I got hit by this stray hurl. At the time, I didn’t even know where it had come from.
‘If you look back at the incident, the players’ reactions show that they thought it was something serious. There was a look of shock on Brian Hogan’s face.
‘Tadhg Crowley, the Kilkenny doctor, came on the field. He was trying to get me off, to have a proper look, as if I was a player. I waited three or four years for the opportunity to ref an All-Ireland. I wasn’t going to lie down. It wasn’t going to end because of a small cut. I was determined to keep going.’
Gavin’s bravery was praised following the final, but the incident may have also copper-fastened his reputation in the minds of many hurling supporters – of a ref who was more lenient than most and was determined, as much as possible, to let the game flow.
Gavin drew on his own hurling career – he was part of the first Clara side to reach senior level in Offaly – to gauge the tenor of a match and whether players were going over the line or not. He believed that players and managers respected that.
‘When I hurled, I was able to read a game and read where the ball was going to be and I tried to bring that into my refereeing. I was lucky in my career, I never had any confrontation with managers or players and I was involved in some of the greatest matches that ever took place.
‘The modern player wants to hurl. The stories we have all heard from years ago, of tough men and dirty strokes, they are gone. They are very rare in the modern game.
‘Hurlers want to hurl and I was always of the mind that I will give them the best possible opportunity to hurl.
‘We do this because we love the game and you have to think of the supporter. They don’t want to pay into Croke Park or Semple Stadium and see a game where there are fouls blown every 30 seconds, nothing but frees and yellow cards.
‘Sometimes, that can’t be helped but if players want to hurl, my attitude was “let them hurl”.’
Refereeing will always be the most thankless of vocations. After each defeat, the default setting of a losing supporter is to fixate on some error of the match officials – even if it is the most marginal of calls.
Gavin says every ref understands this. The job means that you are always to anger some of the people, some of the time.
But he feels that part of supporter ire is down to ignorance of the rules. He has even heard players who don’t fully know the rules.
‘We should be doing more to highlight the rules. You see in the Premier League, Sky and BT use ex-referees to explain decisions.
‘A five-minute slot on The Sunday Game every fortnight, explaining certain calls, would do a lot to improve understanding. Or have a section in the match programme, explaining some rules.’
With VAR trialled in English football this past week, (Martin Atkinson used it four times in the Chelsea v Arsenal League Cup semi-final on Wednesday), Gavin reckons it is inevitable that some sort of video official will be used in big games at Croke Park in the future.
‘Anything that can assist the referee should be considered. If the technology is there, I think it is inevitable that it will be brought in at some stage.
‘There will always be an argument made that the facility won’t be at all the grounds. But for the biggest games, if it helps the referee, why not? Why not have someone in the stand who can look at a replay within a couple of seconds.
‘It is hard to think of any big games where it might have changed in recent years, maybe the 2010 Leinster football final.’
He is keen that the experience garnered from keeping control on the biggest day will be utilised. He has suggested to Croke Park that he will be available to mentor the younger generation of referees. Given that he is the chairman of his club and is doing some commentary work for local radio, he will be kept busy. And his advice for budding referees? Get a team of umpires you trust. His team included his father and brother.
‘I have seen some good referees not get where they should, because they have been let down by their umpires, suffered because they didn’t have good umpires. It is vital for a referee. And you have a bit of craic in the car too, to shorten the journeys.’