Donaghy urges GAA to consider TV match officials

GAELIC GAMES:WHATEVER ABOUT revisiting the "what-ifs" of last September's All-Ireland final, Kerry forward Kieran Donaghy believes the GAA might want to revisit the issue of television match officials – or TMOs, as they're better known in other sports.

Donaghy is known for his keen interest in American sports, and while watching last weekend’s conference finals in the NFL was reminded of what the GAA might be missing out on.

“Unfortunately, for all referees, they make calls they have to stick with, whether they’re right or wrong,” said Donaghy. “But our referees don’t have a chance like refs in other games, like they do in some American sports, and rugby, to look again at what actually happened. They have to make a call in a split second from where they see it, be they 20 yards or 30 yards away.

“I was watching the two American football games last weekend and it was very good. Guys can go home, accept that they lost and not be looking at anything, ‘was this a free or was that a free’?

“I’ve also seen line balls go out and I know it’s our ball and I’ve seen linesmen give it the other way. If that’s two minutes to go and you’re down by a point then you want that ball. In American football the coach throws a red flag on to the field, and they go to the little box at the side of the field, and they say, ‘Yeah, we got that wrong, it’s a Kerry ball . . . or vice versa’.

“I’m sure that could be used. I don’t know if they do it on frees. You have to leave that up to the referee, but there are certain things you can use it for that do have a bearing on a game and have a bearing on results, as well as score detection.”

Donaghy was speaking yesterday ahead of Kerry’s rematch of sorts against Dublin, in the form of the Allianz Football League opener in Croke Park on Saturday week. Without revisiting the close calls of that game, and certainly without disrespecting their All-Ireland conquerors, Donaghy was asked if he felt Kerry found it harder to get the “calls”.

“Do we get all the breaks that we should? I am sure that when a referee is refereeing a game he is not thinking about giving one team a break, or the other an advantage. He blows a foul on what he sees.

“Does it make it harder to take a losing? It does, but I wouldn’t give out about the frees.

“Sometimes they go with your and sometimes they go against you.

“Last year we lost three games by a point, and the differences are so small that it comes down to winning a hop ball or a free and scoring it and that could just as easily have been us so. I don’t know if I see many negatives in it, although in my mind I would prefer to win those games but that’s obviously the way I would be.”

But back on the issue on television match officials, Donaghy said the GAA should make an exception and only use them in Croke Park, for the obvious reasons of costs, but also because that’s where the most important games usually happen.

“The GAA have this kind of thing that ‘oh, we can’t do it in Croke Park because we can’t do it everywhere else’. I think that’s a bit of a way out. I think every game that is on in Croke Park they have the advantages of two big screens, and you have a fourth official, just putting-up subs boards and that sort of thing. He could be doing a bit more, maybe ask him to check out if something was a free or not a free, is it a point or isn’t it, or was it a 45 or not a 45?

“In live time that is a split-second decision, often a guess. It definitely would help and I definitely think it is an option to bring in for every game in Croke Park. Every game in Croke Park is a big game.

“For the time being, while we have the excellent facilities in Croke Park and when the GAA have put so much into making Croke Park into one of the best arenas in the world, why not use it?

“It would be exciting for everybody.”