Some of What Is Said About G.A.A. Match Officials Is Uncalled For

            The then future President of the United States of America Donald J Trump in one of his tweets posted at 10-07am on the 13 of August 2014 said “A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new” and credited it to Albert Einstein.

            In the last few days this is something I have thought about a lot. We have all seen that photo, you know the one, the one snapped behind the goal at the Ennis end of the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday last just over eight minutes from the end of normal time in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship game between Waterford and Tipperary, the one where Waterford centre back Austin Gleeson is reaching into the air, grabbing the sliotar from under the Waterford crossbar.

            We all know now that Jason Forde was credited with scoring a goal from a long distance free, a goal which still and moving pictures on the day appear to indicate that the ball never crossed the line, or at least it never crossed the line in full, something that must happen for a score to be legitimate.

            Since then County Galway referee Alan Kelly and the two selectors that stood at the Ennis Road end of the ground have received a great deal of negative comments from both Waterford supporters and from hurling supporters around the country.

            Hurling is one of the fast sports in the world. There might be some indoor sports where the ball or whatever other objects is used to play the game might be considered faster, but there is hardly another field sport that is faster.

            In hurling the ball can travel from one end of the field to the other almost at the speed of the blink of an eye. Because of the speed the game can be played, it is inevitable that mistakes will happen. Mistakes will be made by players. Mistakes will be made by those on the line. And mistakes will be made by the match officials.

            On Sunday last a mistake was made that cost Waterford a victory over Tipperary. To me to put blame on Alan Kelly or his officials for Waterford losing the game is wrong, and those that are pointing the finger of blame at the officials should be asking questions of themselves.

            I have seen on social media, in the written media and heard on the spoken media people come out with a lot of what I for one can only be called crap talk.

            I would love to know how many of those that have given out about the performances of the officials have ever put a referee’s whistle between their lips and taken charge of a game. How many when asked by a referee to stand behind or beside the goals and fill the duties of an umpire, or ran the line as a linesman or linesperson.

            I am not talking here about games of inter county level. I am not even talking about grades from Under 16 or minor upwards on a local level. To have done so in a primary school game or an under 12 game would do. Have you ever refereed or officiated in a game of these levels. I am sure the majority who are reading this have never do so.

            In the adult grades the pace of the game can be very fast. Even at under 12 or at Primary school’s level if you have one or two good players playing on a reduced size field, the ball can still travel at some pace, and inevitably when it does, regardless of what grade of official referee you are, mistakes are going to be made.

             Calls have been made in the last forty eight hours that top referee’s be appointed as umpires on match days, just as what happens with linesmen and fourth and sideline officials. Other calls have been made whereby umpires be specially trained by the G.A.A. and that they be sent around the country to be umpires when big days happen.

            Here is a question for those that are making such calls. Will appointing such people cut out human errors that happen every so often in games. I really have my doubts they would. Even if we were to have four former inter county referees standing at the posts with white jackets on them for big games, mistakes will happen every so often, just as what happened last Sunday in Limerick.

            Referee’s work as a team with their umpires. Many of them are together for many years, attending numerous games together. A referee will have four regular umpires and maybe one or two standby available to him for the odd occasion when for whatever reason one of them cannot attend a game.

            We all recognise the top referee’s in both hurling and football, and some of us may be forgiven for thinking just because we see them Sunday after Sunday at games we attend or watch on the television, be it live or on the highlights shown on the Sunday Game on a Sunday evening, that they only do big games for the G.A.A. with their four umpires who are often close relations or club members of the referee.

            What we might often realise is that that same referee might have refereed a game on the Friday evening and/or the Saturday before the game we see him do on the television on a Sunday, and depending on how far he might have to travel home from the venue we see him at, he might also referee a game in his home county.

            Not all of these games might be high profile within his own county, by high profile I mean senior hurling or football. It might be a junior game that he is given to referee in his own county, and the four officials he had with him at the game we see on television he will have them with him when he takes charge of games in his own county, regardless of what level they are at.

            Is it right therefore that if a person is willing to act as an umpire with a Junior or even a Junior ‘B’ game with a referee in his own county, games that might be seen by a handful of people, dedicated supporters of the clubs in action that day, just because he gets a more high profile game.

            I know in writing my report of the game for my blog-page on Sunday evening was somewhat critical of the positioning of the umpires for when ‘that goal’ was given, but having seen the incident again and thinking about what happened on the day, maybe i jumped to a conclusion too fast.

            Let’s think of what was happening at the time. Tipperary had won a free in a position of the field where you would expect Jason Forde to put the ball over the crossbar. But he didn’t. The ball failed to stay high enough in the air for long enough to go over the crossbar as expected and fell short of the target. Because the umpires had expected the ball to go over, the umpire with the green flag, on the side of the field the free was being taken from went behind the posts to watch it go between the uprights and give the signal to the umpire with the white flag to wave it, indicating that a point was scored.

            When the sliotar failed to go over the crossbar he quickly moved back to his position to the left of Waterford goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe, and as he did he saw Austin Gleeson standing on the Waterford line take the ball from under the crossbar.

            I am sure in hurling that when this happens ninety nine times out of one hundred the ball would have crossed the line and a goal would be awarded and i am sure that given what would normally be the case, a score was awarded.

            There have also been many people saying that the referee did not get the umpires together and consult them. Just because we did not see Alan Kelly run in and take the two officials together does not mean he did not consult them.

            With some time now all officials are wired up together with ear pieces and a microphone and can communicate with each other. We all saw the documentary shown on RTE last year on the All-Ireland hurling final and saw the referee in constant communication with his officials. When something was happening off the ball and was brought to the referee’s attention, we saw and heard him tell his umpires to let the players know that he was fully aware of what was happening, and in doing things that way he was avoiding having to possibly stopping the game and running to players at the opposite end of the field to which the action was happening to warn them himself.

            If people in Waterford and indeed those that were possibly supporting Waterford in other counties want to be critical of the performance of the match day officials last Sunday, then we have to be fair and speak about an incident that happened in the second half of the game, which could have seen Waterford’s numbers cut from fifteen to fourteen for the fourth time in five games.

            The Irish Independent today published a photo of an incident which has crept into the game in the last number of years, one which is highly dangerous, and which sees players caught for what they are doing receive a one match ban, which in the eyes of yours truly is a very lenient suspension.

            The picture shows Waterford centre back Austin Gleeson, the player involved in the ‘phantom’ or ‘ghost’ goal  as it is being referred to is seen pulling at the helmet of Tipperary’s Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher, but the Galway official who it is alleged to have seen the incident took no action.