GAA defend referee assessment

GAELIC GAMES:CLAIMS THAT continuous assessment is somehow putting referees under extra pressure to apply playing rules to the letter of the law have been rejected by Croke Park. Referee assessors were present at practically all Allianz League matches over the weekend, but according to Pat Doherty, the GAA's national match officials manager, this was nothing out of the ordinary and merely underlines their intention to improve the consistency of referees.

“Our intention would be to have referees assessed at every league and championship match,” said Doherty. “For a few reasons that doesn’t happen, but I would say that at 95 per cent of games the referee assessor would be there.

“The referee would know that, and the purpose first of all is to provide the referees appointment committee with some feedback and information about how referees are performing. We hear enough about refereeing performances in the media but we need our own information, to decide for ourselves if the performance is good or poor or whatever.”

Dublin football manager Pat Gilroy was among those to raise the issue of referee assessors and the apparent pressure that brings following his team’s one-point victory over Monaghan in Clones. That game saw the issuing of eight yellow cards, including two for Dublin forward Diarmuid Connolly, who was thus dismissed with 10 minutes remaining.

“I have to say I can’t understand why there were so many yellow and red cards,” said Gilroy. “I didn’t think that was a dirty game. It’s down to the pressure that referees are under to apply the rules to the letter of the law. I suppose they’re being forced to do it. The game didn’t flow because of it. And it wasn’t a dirty game. I don’t think there was one dirty belt.”

However, Croke Park claim referee assessment should have the opposite effect, and ensure all rules are properly and consistently applied: “I don’t think it puts any extra pressure on the referee,” added Doherty. “The only pressure is that he performs, the same way you’d expect teams or players to perform under pressure. What we’re asking is for him to improve his game, the same way managers would ask players to improve, be telling them what they’ve done well, and what might they need to improve on.

“If anything that’s positive pressure. And 99 per cent of the time they will react in a positive way. It’s about improving the standards. Managers want referees to perform at their best, to be consistent, and all the referee assessment is doing is helping make sure they do exactly that.”

Prior to the start of the league, Croke Park declared that three main “technical fouls” would be policed with greater force: the taking of 45s/65s inside the line itself; the line ball being taken from outside the sideline; and the kicking of frees away from the position they were awarded.

This season has also seen the introduction of a new internal website dedicated to refereeing issues, which can only be assessed by referees, and which includes a bank of video clips which will highlight referee errors or disputed decisions – acting as a sort of self-assessment tool.