Meath not going Up to play Down but must Down Down to stay Up or go Down

[Hardy]

I don't know what to say about the match. The principal feature of it was its domination by a farcical refereeing performance. Every time someone fell when an opposition player was within touching distance, it was a free, whether he was touched or not. To compound the farce, the only robust foul in the game wasn't given at all.

I don't know whether it would have been a farce under the old rules anyway, but I think the new rules are being as badly refereed as the old ones, with the addition that referees are now totally obsessed with penalising physical challenges, to the extent of penalising non-contact close encounters.

I'm finding it very hard to watch this stuff. But some most people seem to think it's great that we're seeing more scores.

[agorm]

Hi Hardy, it is pretty hard to watch at times. Not sure if it is totally the refs fault - team tactics have a part in it too.
Great that we pulled away in the end. It leaves the game vs Louth next week a dead rubber.

[Hound]

I don't know what to say about the match. The principal feature of it was its domination by a farcical refereeing performance. Every time someone fell when an opposition player was within touching distance, it was a free, whether he was touched or not. To compound the farce, the only robust foul in the game wasn't given at all.

I don't know whether it would have been a farce under the old rules anyway, but I think the new rules are being as badly refereed as the old ones, with the addition that referees are now totally obsessed with penalising physical challenges, to the extent of penalising non-contact close encounters.

I'm finding it very hard to watch this stuff. But some most people seem to think it's great that we're seeing more scores.

I think it was just a poor ref who erred on the side of punishing physicality more than he should be. For example, from what I've seen of refs this year, the vast majority of them would have given (at most) yellow cards for the two incidents that resulted in Down's black cards. The ref went more by the reaction of the player fouled than by the actual foul itself IMO.

As you said, he was a weak referree which unfortunately (but perhaps, naturally) encouraged players to go to ground easily because they'd get the easy free.