Giving GAA referees a voice is one way to put a stop to this toxic culture

THE sight of a Roscommon referee lying prostrate on the ground after an alleged assaulted at an underage match this week was a reminder that one unwanted dividend of the split season is that we are likely to see such apparent acts of savagery while the sun is still high in the sky.

Usually, yarns of mass brawls, violent pitch incursions and match officials being subjected to physical assault are the stuff of dark winter tales, but what happened this week in Roscommon merely reminds that thuggery does not need the cover of dark winter skies to flourish.

As ever, it is unfair to paint an entire association with one broad brush, but for too long a sense of entitlement has allowed some people to believe that once they step inside a GAA ground, the rules of normal civil behaviour and, indeed, the law of the land, are suspended.

Inevitably, it is the GAA’s most exposed volunteers who take the hit. Without match officials, the games would stall, as they are being painfully reminded of in Roscommon this weekend where a referees’ strike, in response to that incident involving Kevin Naugton, has seen all club games called off.

Of course, while these are thankfully isolated situations, they really should be non-existent. And far too often the knee-jerk reaction is to point a finger at Croke Park and ask what is it going to do about the actions of a lunatic fringe who seek to hide behind the cover of tribal passions to justify criminal behaviour.

The reality is there is very little that can be done to put manners on thugs because, ultimately, it is only when the criminal courts – and not the GAA’s disciplinary wing – intervene will the penny drop on the deranged that the same laws that apply outside the club grounds also apply within them.

But what the GAA can do is ensure the respect they crave for their match officials is facilitated by getting it right in its showpiece games.

For long it has been argued that the GAA should import the protocols in place in rugby union, where respect for referees is sacrosanct, not just at an elite level but right down the food chain, with Offaly manager Liam Kearns (left) the latest to make that point this week.

‘At the end of the day, we don’t have enough respect for the referees.

‘We should look to rugby with regard to the respect we should have for referees because we don’t respect referees the way we should and it has to be looked at,’ he pleaded.

A couple of key elements to nourishing that respect in rugby are the clear but restricted lines of communication that exist exclusively between team captains and the referee, and the fact that officials are ‘mic’ed up’ at the elite level.

It leads to better officiating – as in explaining decisions – but it also informs the public that referees possess a knowledge of the rules and games that is often lost in their enforced silence.

And if the wider public could get an appreciation of that, it might just feed down the line to the point where a referee taking charge of an underage match might not have to take a copy of his private health insurance with him every time he takes to the field.

Of course, it will not stop the lunatics.

But it would mean that the next time Croke Park is asked what it is doing to tackle this toxic culture they could, at least, point to the fact they are following proven best practice.

Right now, the only thing they are following is the prospect of a prolonged winter of shame.