Antrim Hurling

[Milltown Row2]

I remember heading to Falls park one night to ref a game, beautiful Sunday evening it was. Nobody there at all. Both teams had contacted the county but the county didn't bother to tell me, went to Feystown straight from work in Derry City on a Friday night, same story.

I admire lads who give up their time to ref our games and officiate in any capacity like umpire.

Derry to Feystown is dedication. No wonder people can't be arsed.

Should make it mandatory for club secs to copy referee coordinator in any correspondence regarding  refixes, or else it's seen as a no show and a fine. Problem solved.

Fixtures secretary normally has to give consent to both clubs refixing a game and they inform the referee.

Servasport irons out a lot of these issues as I think it automatically updates referees, if the fixtures secretary updates it.
MR2 will know for sure.

Both main men who do arrange the referees do tremendous stuff and have (IMO) a great balance of referees but if the clubs CCC arange something and don't inform the referee committee then it falls down right there.. I'm very wary of some fixtures now, and I usually call ahead or ask a clubman if I have a number and get confirmation.

Have done this and its worked out for me, but Ive been caught out a few times,  notably for me last year was an under 21 championship hurling match, at no point would i have thought the game was off as the team who beat our club were playing Dunloy in the next round! Heads to Dunloy, game off, both teams knew at 2pm that day!

[Tony Baloney]

I remember heading to Falls park one night to ref a game, beautiful Sunday evening it was. Nobody there at all. Both teams had contacted the county but the county didn't bother to tell me, went to Feystown straight from work in Derry City on a Friday night, same story.

I admire lads who give up their time to ref our games and officiate in any capacity like umpire.

Derry to Feystown is dedication. No wonder people can't be arsed.

Should make it mandatory for club secs to copy referee coordinator in any correspondence regarding  refixes, or else it's seen as a no show and a fine. Problem solved.

Fixtures secretary normally has to give consent to both clubs refixing a game and they inform the referee.

Servasport irons out a lot of these issues as I think it automatically updates referees, if the fixtures secretary updates it.
MR2 will know for sure.

Both main men who do arrange the referees do tremendous stuff and have (IMO) a great balance of referees but if the clubs CCC arange something and don't inform the referee committee then it falls down right there.. I'm very wary of some fixtures now, and I usually call ahead or ask a clubman if I have a number and get confirmation.

Have done this and its worked out for me, but Ive been caught out a few times,  notably for me last year was an under 21 championship hurling match, at no point would i have thought the game was off as the team who beat our club were playing Dunloy in the next round! Heads to Dunloy, game off, both teams knew at 2pm that day!

That's poor.

[playwiththewind1st]

It's poor alright, but you can see it's a common problem. When I was getting match appointments sent to my phone, I never once got a postponement notification, so that doesn't  work. I also remember traipsing down to Ballygalget one Saturday afternoon, only for a certain West Belfast side not to tbother to turn up. They subsequently suggested that I might like to put in a teamsheet for them, to avoid a no show fine. As in "you wasted a large part of my weekend, so you can piss away off".

[imtommygunn]

No one is selling this ref lark too well 

[playwiththewind1st]

Doesn't look like it! Oh & did I mention the good old telephone calls to your home number on a Sunday night, when the county used to rather stupidly put those details on its website, to "discuss" what was going into your match report & which turned pretty abusive, if you didn't give them the answer they wanted? Refereeing isn't all fun, you know!

[Milltown Row2]

No one is selling this ref lark too well 

Look I've been doing it over 10 years now, it's not bad at all, the automated messages, regular updates,referee WhatsApps, fitness rules test, assessments and good structure, it's a hell of a lot better than it was. But I'm certainly noticing gurning more and more, even creeping into the manly sport of hurling.


If a keeper makes a mistake it's magnified as it will/could cost a goal, the players will rally round him and encourage him, a referee is human also but will get torrid abuse the whole match, if a player feels he didn't get a 'foul' . It's a bizarre 'job' but being involved in these games is good. On games alone in a week I could maybe run 24 Km, that's without doing my own training, if anything it keeps you fit.

[bogieman]

No one is selling this ref lark too well 

Look I've been doing it over 10 years now, it's not bad at all, the automated messages, regular updates,referee WhatsApps, fitness rules test, assessments and good structure, it's a hell of a lot better than it was. But I'm certainly noticing gurning more and more, even creeping into the manly sport of hurling.


If a keeper makes a mistake it's magnified as it will/could cost a goal, the players will rally round him and encourage him, a referee is human also but will get torrid abuse the whole match, if a player feels he didn't get a 'foul' . It's a bizarre 'job' but being involved in these games is good. On games alone in a week I could maybe run 24 Km, that's without doing my own training, if anything it keeps you fit.

Start a Referees Appriciation Thread...

Motto;  L'essence du bénévolat, c'est la gratitude.

There would appear to be plenty of forumites for it...

To get you guys started, some discussion topics;
Condemnation is not justified, unless self-inflicted
Match 'fee' for volunteering, the only man on the pitch getting tax free coin
Travel expenses tax deductible
'Mileage' per game
Sycophancy of the 2 main men...

Ps
Selling the lark; the morer the labourer, the lesser the wage...

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

to be honest the way rugby has went with the 100% respect towards a ref to me is the only way forward and it has to come from the side lines as well.

thats where i feel it starts to fester during a game if the management is shouting at a ref the players follow suit.

[Milltown Row2]

That'll never happen unless ref takes zero tolerance and has the ability to be backed by all involved.

Players seem to forget that the ref has been a player a coach a supporter and GAA man, he understands the frustration as much as the next guy. The wild accusations of being a cheat and not knowing the rules and so on is wrong and unhelpful to encourage new refs!

It's getting worse and to the point were we won't have enough refs to do our games, I wonder who'll they'll blame then

[paddyjohn]

Sure all refs are cheats and are blind.

[MoChara]

That'll never happen unless ref takes zero tolerance and has the ability to be backed by all involved.

Players seem to forget that the ref has been a player a coach a supporter and GAA man, he understands the frustration as much as the next guy. The wild accusations of being a cheat and not knowing the rules and so on is wrong and unhelpful to encourage new refs!

It's getting worse and to the point were we won't have enough refs to do our games, I wonder who'll they'll blame then

It'll be the usual "someone" because Someone should do something about it

[saffman]

No major upsets over the weekend.

Portaferry & Dunloy still going strong at the top. Relegation could well turn out to be an interesting one for div 1.
Sarsfields turning over st endas easier than im sure most expected, Creggan also going strong in Div 2.

[ciaran1988]

Big weekend for our senior hurlers as the Joe McDonagh throws in. Need to make our two home games count in what is a difficult competition as the fine margins will decide wether we challenge or fight relegation. Should be a hard fought game against Kerry but one I'm confident we can get the win. Antrim by 4 for me

[johnnycool]

No major upsets over the weekend.

Portaferry & Dunloy still going strong at the top. Relegation could well turn out to be an interesting one for div 1.
Sarsfields turning over st endas easier than im sure most expected, Creggan also going strong in Div 2.

Dunloy schooled our lads today and opened up a big lead with a strong wind. Our lads seem to think marking a man and tracking his run is a thing of the past....
Put up a better showing in the second but the game was over.

Referee must have run the marathon as he didn't do much during the game.

[Milltown Row2]

No major upsets over the weekend.

Portaferry & Dunloy still going strong at the top. Relegation could well turn out to be an interesting one for div 1.
Sarsfields turning over st endas easier than im sure most expected, Creggan also going strong in Div 2.

Dunloy schooled our lads today and opened up a big lead with a strong wind. Our lads seem to think marking a man and tracking his run is a thing of the past....
Put up a better showing in the second but the game was over.

Referee must have run the marathon as he didn't do much during the game.

Think he had a long weekend of activities that must have drained his normal super energy levels