The professional therapist retained by the GAA to counsel intercounty referees has unequivocally described the pressures facing match officials as one the biggest threats to the association.
According to Justin Campbell, who won an All-Ireland under-21 hurling medal with Galway in 1991 and played in the 1993 senior final, the stress on referees is unsustainable.
“One of the biggest threats to the GAA would be refereeing in the next five to 10 years if we don’t change the system.”
As a counsellor and psychotherapist, he was asked eight years ago to talk to referees about mental health issues and features in RTÉ documentary Réiteoir!, presented by Gráinne McElwain, which is to air this Thursday.
“If they made a big mistake in a game, how did they deal with that and the aftermath of it being highlighted on The Sunday Game, and when social media gets a hold of it and they have to go back into work on Monday?” Campbell recalls asking the referees.
“There was silence and then one of them stood up and said, ‘this is the elephant in room’. This is what they were dealing with and nobody in particular is talking about it.
“As a result, Croke Park asked me to provide a service. There are about 80 referees in total between hurling and football,” he says.
“They may pick up the phone the following day or contact you three months later and they could be suffering for those three months. The anxiety is huge and sometimes, depression, and some referees – maybe it’s human nature – have a tendency to bottle it up and hold on to it themselves but it’s important that the service is there to be able to support them and help them.”
The programme also features Meath All-Ireland football official David Gough, who appears with fellow referees Siobhán Coyle and Eoghan Ó Muircheartaigh, talking about two mistakes in big matches in recent years.
The first was a failure to give Kerry a free in the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin and the other penalising Mayo’s Conor Loftus at the end of last season’s Connacht final – a decision that enabled Galway to win a third successive title.
“I gave Galway the free and it was wrong,” says Gough. “Mayo deserved it. That was difficult for me and it still bothers me.
“I am still talking to the psychologist about the negative mindset I have because of that foul and I’m still worried that it will happen again. That’s the second time ever it happened – 2016 and 2024 – and that bothers me a lot.
“I learned after the semi-final in 2016 between Dublin and Kerry when I made a mistake, not to read the comments. It was very difficult after that.”
An openly gay man, Gough also speaks about the stress of homophobic abuse in letters sent to his family home.
Campbell analyses the average burden on a referee when taking charge of a match.
“For 70 minutes how many decisions does a referee have to make? What’s a free and not a free, letting a game run, yellow cards and red cards and timing, ticks and scores.
“We calculated around 500 decisions a game. If you get the majority of those right, you’re probably on the right track, but you’re not going to get them all right.
“That’s how much pressure a referee is under and me sitting on the sideline, screaming abuse probably isn’t going to help the referee.”
♦ Réiteoir! produced by Macha Media for RTÉ and BBC NI screens this Thursday on RTÉ One at 10.15pm