The Backdoor: Sean Cleere finds himself persona non grata

For an intercounty referee social media can be an unforgiving place – it’s become the contemporary centre of criticism that was once at home in the local watering hole. In the eyes of every tweeter and facebooker in Wexford – and indeed Tipperary – Sean Cleere is persona non grata.

His questionable decisions on Sunday were almost as frequent as scowls on the face of one plucky Wexford manager, adding more fuel to the fire of controversy that was the weekend.

Less than 24 hours earlier the first semi-final of the weekend ended with Limerick being denied a ‘65 from a central position. The champions lost by a point.

Considering all that, Kevin McStay’s appearance on RTÉ Radio’s Saturday Sport, to reveal some of the tweaks he would introduce regards officiating, was somewhat timely.

Tipperary's grit sets up an old-firm final with familiar foes

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John Kiely points to Kilkenny’s ferocious intensity

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Liam Sheedy: ‘I didn’t see guys who were throwing in the towel’

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Nicky English: Tipp’s resilience saw them through

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And while the Irish Times columnist may be a football pundit in the main there’s no obvious reason most of his suggestions couldn’t be implemented across both codes.

“A watered down version of VAR” he refers to as Ref Assist was perhaps the most striking proposal, along with increasing the amount of steps permitted to five or six, hence enabling referees to enforce the rule in question more effectively.

In theory the proposals may be foolproof, though if previous experiences have taught us anything we’ll have learned that implementing new rules requires a level of holism the GAA have been known to struggle with.

Minor tweaks, such as the introduction of the black card in football, have only introduced further elements of confusion, the inconsistency of decisions subsequently becoming a perennial bug-bear for players and fans alike.

These proposals may be “easy-fixes” on paper but if new elements are going to be introduced an accepted level of consistency must first be achieved. As of now, neither football nor hurling have come close.

What they said

“The question has to be asked; they’re good but maybe the standard in Munster isn’t as good as we think they are” – RTÉ pundit Cyril Farrell questioned the standard of the Munster hurling championship after Limerick exited the championship on Saturday.

Polishing the turd

“I don’t find any rhythm in it. It’s blank, it’s nothing.”

Colm Toibin was controversially talking about genre-fiction, when he could so easily have been referencing what now seems to be the most popular phrase in the GAA lexicon: championship structures.

Debate has reached the point of tedium and, still, we’re no closer to finding that desired sense of “rhythm” during the summer.

Following the football championship, in particular, has become a grinding chore; and while hurling has provided us with an embarrassment of riches in terms of entertainment, it’s not going to last forever.

This has led to the possible review of the Super 8s “Croke Park round”, as was reported on these pages last week, proving very little has changed over the past few decades within the association. Once again, they’re heading for the reactive approach. Ever. Been. Thus.

To regretfully paraphrase one Etonian galoot on Downing Street: by reviewing just one miniscule aspect of the championship we are merely “polishing a turd”, when a brand new structure, unrecognisable from what’s currently in place, seems the obvious route forward.

Since that goes against the association’s modus operandi of kicking the can down the road and tinkering around the edges, expect nothing of the sort.

By the numbers

34 : With victory over Tyrone yesterday Kerry stretched their unbeaten championship run at minor level to 34 games, continuing their bid for a sixth All-Ireland title in a row.

Emperor Cody

The 1998 Kilkenny County Board committee tasked with finding a new manager must be feeling fairly chuffed with themselves. Little did they know, they happened upon some incomprehensible reincarnation of Julius Caesar – an improved, more determined version perhaps.

Veni, vidi, vici...vidi, vici...vidi, vici and so on.

Brian Cody’s conquering conquests should have ended when he became, undisputedly, the best manager to ever grace a sideline, but when others failed to come up with new horizons for him the man himself went about creating new dynasties.

The doyen of modern-day hurling is now only 70 minutes away from an astonishing 12th title, leaving the rest of us to ponder just where in his absurd list of achievements this title will stand.

He assembled arguably the greatest side the game has ever witnessed a decade ago. Now, he’s shrugging off up-and-coming dynasties, such as Limerick’s, with a side believed to be well-short of the talent he’s been gifted in the past.

While we can all be guilty of recency bias in the immediate aftermath of a game, it wouldn’t be unjustified to repeat the comments of the RTÉ panel who suggested Saturday’s victory sits alongside Cody’s greatest victories.

Where does that put another win next month?