The 16th Man

ALMOST every Monday morning the referee is the story in the GAA.

In Croke Park Cormac Reilly was in the spotlight for awarding a late free which handed Dublin their Leinster semi-final win over Kildare.

Was it a free? Predictably both sides have different stories to tell.

The referee must have been pretty sure in his own mind to call a foul at such a crucial point, but what frustrates many people is that a bit of pulling and holding off the ball is almost always tolerated.

In Castlebar Rory Hickey let Mayo defender Keith Higgins off with a yellow card despite the fact that he clearly struck a Galway player - a red card offence.

In Clones Joe McQuillan gave Kevin Hughes from Tyrone two deserved yellow cards, but he let more than one player off without a warning for similar offences while Donegal’s Leo McLoone, like Higgins, had a lucky escape.

Any player will tell you what they want from a referee is consistency. If he makes the same calls throughout a match, no matter how odd, at least they know what to expect.

Consistency right across the board would be the ideal scenario, but it isn’t likely to happen.

The main problem facing the GAA is that referees are seen as fair game for anyone to have a go at once their team loses.

Kildare didn’t win at the weekend and Reilly is a handy scapegoat. But they should look first at themselves to find the reasons why they didn’t win a game despite playing more than 30 minutes with an extra man after Dublin’s Eoghan O’Gara was sent off.

The verbal abuse referees get from players, officials and supporters in club matches would make you wonder sometimes why they bother.

At inter-county level they are generally afforded much greater respect from those they share the field with, but people in the crowd believe that their ticket is a license to slander and defame the match official.

In the media, particularly on television, a referee’s performance is analysed right down to the smallest call.

Without referees the GAA wouldn’t exist, but attracting the right quality of candidate to take up the whistle is next to impossible because people don’t want to get involved.

Why would anyone want to leave themselves open that level of public scrutiny and abuse? In rugby, where the referee’s word is absolutely final, it wouldn’t be tolerated.

Many former players who would make brilliant refs never put their names forward for the role because of the stigma attached.

Until people learn to keep their mouths shut and respect referees this problem will remain. And as long as the problem continues consistency will never happen.