Freaney rejects criticism of referees

CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 NEWS: THE STAKES are high come August championship time with the slightest refereeing error being pounced upon by managers of defeated teams.

Two approaches are apparent. One is the nuclear stance favoured by Waterford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald, when he speaks about non-specific incidents while adding the rider that the referee wasn’t the cause for defeat. However, he still feels the need to question the decisions.

The second more forensic angle, adopted by Mayo football manager John O’Mahony, is to wait until questioned on exact instances that arguably turned the game. His measured responses are made after examining the game’s major flashpoints with the aid of video replay, thus taking the emotional aspect out of it by allowing the dust to settle somewhat.

The GAA’s national co-ordinator for referees Pierce Freaney rejected the criticisms yesterday.

“I was at both games and as far as I’m concerned Barry Kelly (the hurling referee) had an outstanding game. There were decisions made that you might think should have gone one way and I’d say they should have gone the other. It is not an exact science.

“There were other incidents that I didn’t see and John O’Mahony admitted he didn’t see during the course of the game so it would be reasonable to assume the officials didn’t see them either.”

O’Mahony suggested the assessment of referees should be released into the public domain, something Freaney was adamant will not be occurring on his watch.

“I’ve always said to the managers that have asked me what the assessor thinks of the referee, I’d give them a rough idea. I wouldn’t give them the mark or the details but I’d give them a rough idea.

“I don’t see the value of (releasing the report) to a manager or the public. It is probably another stick to beat the system with.”

Would it not remove some blatant ambiguity? “If he has a bad game we don’t need to wait for the assessor,” continued Freaney. “The appointments committee would have a representative at almost all the high-profile matches. For instance, I’d be at all the matches in Croke Park and all the Leinster matches so we really don’t need the assessor to . . . we make appointments with the assessor role only a small part of it.”

One controversial incident from Meath’s defeat of Mayo occurred in the first half when Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke appeared to carry the ball over his own goalline.

As it stands, umpires do receive official training but not of a refereeing standard. They are part of each referee’s team of officials. It begs the question: why not use referees, or at least aspiring whistlers, to perform this task?

“We feel that the fact the guy is a referee doesn’t make him any better as an umpire,” Freaney stated. “It’s just the same as we use referees as linesmen but that doesn’t eliminate errors. You are never living with a perfect system when you are dealing with humans. All the championship referees are very aware that all their umpires have to be up to scratch and we keep hammering them on that. And they do.

“By and large, this year, there have been very few mistakes and what I would call bad refereeing performances in the championship. I think most people would admit this is the best year we have ever had. Now there is always going to be mistakes. There are mistakes in professional sports by professional referees as well. We all aspire to perfection but very few attain it.”

Increased dialogue between referees and managers has been only rarely attempted.

“We would love to have that. But . . . there was a focus group of hurling and football from each province set up last year. The last meeting we had was after the league and three managers turned up, so are they interested?

“We would love to have communication and talk over specific roles and issues, like the tackle. We can’t go to them individually. In fairness, John O’Mahony was at these meetings and is a very good communicator.”

Any temptation to contact Davy Fitzgerald after his outburst? “Would he pick up the phone and talk to me? He is welcome to talk to me anytime. No problem at all. But is that on his agenda, that is a question I would ask?