Referees to be vigilant with regard to 'technical fouls'

GAELIC GAMES:IN THE absence of any experimental playing rules it's hard to predict what issues might arise when the Allianz Football League gets underway this weekend but the GAA have warned players and managers of one thing: there'll be no more bending the rules when it comes to taking frees or sideline balls.

These “technical fouls” were highlighted at a presentation in Croke Park yesterday, following the annual pre-season seminar with intercounty managers on Monday evening.

It was also confirmed county referees will have a choice of three jerseys – black, red or blue – and that umpires were also about to get a cosmetic make-over to go with further education in the playing rules.

“We had a very positive and informative meeting with the managers on Monday,” said GAA president Christy Cooney. “We don’t have any experimental rules this year, but I think one thing that came from the managers was that they didn’t want continuous tampering and changing of the rules.

“They wanted the opportunity for rules to settle. We are in a position to clarify rules, are always open to that, and that will continue.

“The referees would feel exactly the same. Tampering and changing rules on an ongoing basis doesn’t do anybody any good. We have made some changes last year. We had a discussion at Congress around them. We are in a steeled space now and we would like to keep in that steeled space for a while and let the games settle.”

Pat Doherty, the GAA’s national match officials manager, outlined the three main “technical fouls” which he said referees would be policing with greater force throughout the league.

“The first is taking of 45s/65s inside the line itself,” he said, “sometimes as much as four or five yards. This won’t be accepted anymore, because we’ve seen cases where even half a yard matters.

“The second is the line ball. This has been enforced in football, as the kick must clearly be taken from outside the sideline, but the rule is being consistently broken in hurling, with players often dropping the ball inside the line.

“And finally there’s the issue of the kicking frees away from the position they were awarded. Again we see this more in football than hurling, especially when it’s taken from the hands. So we’ve asked referees to concentrate on these three areas.”

This season also sees 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.

“This isn’t about criticising referees, or highlighting their mistakes,” said Doherty, “but rather offer further support and means for studying various incidents that might arise over the season.”

The choice of colour when it comes to the referee’s jersey – the traditional black, and also blue or red – is at the discretion of the referee, provided there is no clash of colours with one of the teams in the game.

There will also be the continuation of the Fair Play Index, where counties are given points for various offences, and the team with lowest number of points at the end of the season is awarded with the fair play honour.

Also, because of a motion passed at last year’s Congress, from January 1st this year, all county referees over the age of 50 must retire, and among those forced to retire as a result are the likes of Aidan Mangan and Ger Keneavey.

Some 20 referees in total are affected by this rule this season, although the majority of those will continue to be involved in referee assessment.

The GAA are open to the potential appointment of women referees, with women linesmen and umpires already serving at club level. Two intercounty matches last year in fact had female umpires.

The new umpire training will take place over the course of the league, and they will then be subjected to a test before the championship. The GAA are considering the change of uniform as something which Cooney said might make them look “a little smarter”.

“We want to make sure umpires clearly understand the rules of the game,” he said. “At the same time we’ve no plans to take any responsibility away from the referee.”