Are referees ruining our games?

[Mike Sheehy]

I think Uladh hits the nail on the head. Over the last five years or so there seems to have been a steadily increasing intolerance of physicality in the game. This particularly manifests itself in situations when you have a back and a forward running for a ball, a lot of the time any force used by the back at all will result in a handy free for the forward. Someone somewhere along the line must have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to the forward in these situations, not a bad idea in principle but its now gotten to the stage that in any match I go to there at least 5-6 soft scorable frees, given as a result of this 'benefit of the doubt to the forward' attitude when two players come together. For me watching Armagh this is my main frustration with referees as we seem to have had a couple big, powerful defenders for the last few years who are continually penalised for using their strength.

This may be going off on a tangent but I genuinely believe that Pat Spillane has a lot to answer for this. After a couple of years of Armagh/Tyrone beating his beloved Kerry he decided that it wasn't because we were better football teams, but rather because we cheated and bullied our way to the top. So he began spewing his propaganda from the Sunday game studio, the Sunday World and from anywhere else who would have him and, hey presto, 5 years later the terms blanket defence and puke football are synonymous with Armagh and Tyrone.

Lets get it straight, the success of Armagh and Tyrone was based on a powerful, physical defensive line but there is nothing wrong with that! But Spillane, and others who bought his shite, have ostracised the art of defending while eulogising the virtues of the silky corner forward. He's painted defenders as big, grizzly cheats that go out to ruin our game and stop the real stars, the corner forwards, from playing. This has in a large part led to the current climate where most matches are marred with handy frees with do nothing but frustrate defenders and supporters alike.

Now this isn't paranoia at all. Spillane is, and he knows it, one of the most powerful voices in the GAA. He says stuff and everyone, down south anyway, foolishly listen. Over the years he continually complained about and clichéd Ulster football to the extent that I can guarantee you nearly every Ulster championship match preview in any of the national newspapers will be riddled with clichés such as blanket defense, dour battle, defensively minded etc.,etc. For some reason in this country we take the word of sports commentators as gold - look at Eamonn Dunphy, he has played a massive role in getting the last two Irish managers sacked and single handedly prevented Terry Venables from getting the job. Spillane is the Dunphy of the GAA.

Nordie paranoia alert ! Nordie paranoia alert !

[Hound]

Over the last five years or so there seems to have been a steadily increasing intolerance of physicality in the game.

Exacerbated by the ever-growing tendency for players to throw themselves to the ground when they feel contact...

[Louth Exile]

Criticism is fine, but we've a problem here that's affecting our games badly and criticism won't solve it.
We need to look at the reasons behind bad refereeing displays.

Armagh V Meath (guy from Sligo, forget his name) - ref lacking all common sense and seemingly obsessed with nit picking at every little thing in the game, holding the match up constantly so that he could run up and down the field to chat to his umpires or dish out ticks and 13 yellow cards in a match that wasn't in any way dirty or fractious.

I disagree about the game not being dirty but do agree he was a poor ref.  There were from where I stood three clear striking offences all of which received a yellow which usually annoys me no end but as he was consistent didnt annoy me quite as much.  What did annoy me was his inconsistencies.  For example in the first half he ordered two Armagh men out of the exclusion zone whilst a goal kick was being taken, which is fair enough, in the second half he seemed to forget the rule which made he look not only pernicerty but as my brother put it like an inconsistent fool.

Worse refering performances I have seen was in a club game about two years ago when  the ref sent off a player for what he called deliberate and persistent square ball and booked a man for lifting it off the ground.

That is so bad that its funny 

Just on the striking.... It used to be a striaght sending off, this doesn't happen anymore. Some refs are definitely way too liberal with the yellow cards and the ticks. But, it is also the case that very few give straight red cards nowadays. How often has a player on a yellow card commited a red card offence and instead of the ref giving the straight red, they give a second yellow and then the red!!

[corn02]

At Dromintee's league match on Sunday, we scored a goal that went through the net. The opposition claimed it was a 45 while our forwards protested it was a goal.

The result - The ref awarded a point to keep everyone happy. Funny maybe, totally wrong.

[his holiness nb]

A few months ago our full forward turned and decked his marker with an awful box right in front of the ref who saw it clearly. He gave him a yellow card. 

[AFS]

Over the last five years or so there seems to have been a steadily increasing intolerance of physicality in the game.

Exacerbated by the ever-growing tendency for players to throw themselves to the ground when they feel contact...

And we all know who started this... (cough)Tyrone(cough) 

[Owenmoresider]

Over the last five years or so there seems to have been a steadily increasing intolerance of physicality in the game.

Exacerbated by the ever-growing tendency for players to throw themselves to the ground when they feel contact...

And we all know who started this... (cough)Tyrone(cough) 

Think it was started earlier than that, this man could vouch for that:

[Owenmoresider]

Armagh V Meath (guy from Sligo, forget his name) - ref lacking all common sense and seemingly obsessed with nit picking at every little thing in the game, holding the match up constantly so that he could run up and down the field to chat to his umpires or dish out ticks and 13 yellow cards in a match that wasn't in any way dirty or fractious.

Yep tis Duffy, cannot stand him or his refereeing 'ability', one of the leading exponents of the refereeing style which Uladh described earlier, and is rising up the ladder for it. And his brother isn't much better either.

[Fishbat]

Over the last five years or so there seems to have been a steadily increasing intolerance of physicality in the game.

Exacerbated by the ever-growing tendency for players to throw themselves to the ground when they feel contact...

Definitely, and its players and managers who are partially to blame also for this  -  milking easy refs - of course theres plans laid for each individual ref in the changing rooms before a big game, whether or not they are vulnerable to the soft free etc.........not to forget the gulderin from the terraces if someone even gets farted at - hard to watch at times but easy to gloss over in your own mind if its your own team involved, people aren't thick or blind - its easy to see the play acting......and people equate that with the abuse some players get from their markers and see pulling the easy free as revenge

Were players not too embarassed to fall over in the past?

[orangeman]

At Dromintee's league match on Sunday, we scored a goal that went through the net. The opposition claimed it was a 45 while our forwards protested it was a goal.

The result - The ref awarded a point to keep everyone happy. Funny maybe, totally wrong.

That's ridiculous ! How could have given a point ?

We had a referee on Monday night who played 40 minutes in the second half of our match - he thought he had played 30 but forgot the match was to finsh at 8.00 instead of 8.10pm.

[crossfire]

Most referees that i know never kicked a ball at adult level so how could they be any good at refereeing.
I suppose it is the same in every county.

[corn02]

While were talking about Meath v Armagh, how many ticks did Paul McGrane get?

[Pangurban]

Yes,yes and thrice yes. The standard of refereeing is deteriorating every year. Common sense has been abandoned in order to tick all the boxes for the assessor in the stand. If players are expected to conform tp a standard, then the refs. must be clear as to what the standard is. As there is so much inconsistency, it appears the refs themselves dont agree as to the standard, and the players pay the price for their ignorance. Refs are human, mistakes and bad calls are acceptable and unavoidable, but a poor understanding of the rules is not. The problem will not be solved, while there is such severe difficulties in recruiting refs., after all a bad one is better than none at all. This issue can only be addressed by the clubs, encouraging and putting forward suitable people.

[Farrandeelin]

Armagh V Meath (guy from Sligo, forget his name) - ref lacking all common sense and seemingly obsessed with nit picking at every little thing in the game, holding the match up constantly so that he could run up and down the field to chat to his umpires or dish out ticks and 13 yellow cards in a match that wasn't in any way dirty or fractious.

Yep tis Duffy, cannot stand him or his refereeing 'ability', one of the leading exponents of the refereeing style which Uladh described earlier, and is rising up the ladder for it. And his brother isn't much better either.

The same could be said for a certain D. Corcoran from Islandeady about all the yellow cards he gives out!

[Mike Sheehy]

Most referees that i know never kicked a ball at adult level so how could they be any good at refereeing.
I suppose it is the same in every county.

can everyone who has made a comment that was critical of referees on this thread let us know what your own
experience of referreeing is ?