Best referee in Ireland?

[yellowcard]

Tomas O Se said last night that the top matches deserve to have one of the top 3 or 4 referees in charge. Who are these top 3 or 4 referees though. Coldrick is probably the best out there at the minute but the standard overall is very poor. McQuillan made an awful lot of mistakes yesterday for both teams. It is increasingly becoming an impossible game to referee though with so many cards and a non clearly defined tackle. The issue of time keeping is another bug bear and I don't underatand how a stop clock has not been introduced at this stage. They will probably go and goive the replay to Marty Duffy now!!!

[moysider]

The best referee is the one that hasn t fucked you over recently.

I used to think it was Coldrick until last August.

[Jinxy]

Any one of the Meath lads.
Take your pick.

[thewobbler]

Have a look at the two threads for the AI semi finals, and you might come to the same conclusion as me: we're getting the referees we deserve.

- Our players are cheating in every possible way.
- Our management teams and county boards refuse to accept suspensions and will use any loophole they can find to have them reversed.
- Our administrators point blank refuse to make a stance against the above behaviour by players, management and county boards, and as a result they undermine referees on a weekly basis.
- Our pundits don't understand the rules, don't like the rules, and cannot leave behind their county loyalties, so are unable to form an objective assessment of any incident, which unfortunately adds fuel to the fire that,
- Our supporters seem genuinely unable to accept any black or red card against their team as anything other than biased, inconsistent refereeing. They beat the "all we want is consistency" drum every week... until consistency doesn't suit them.

I've had rants against referees both weeks on Twitter, and know am fully aware that I'm just as bad as the people I'm condemning above.

We're getting the referees we deserve.

[westbound]

Have a look at the two threads for the AI semi finals, and you might come to the same conclusion as me: we're getting the referees we deserve.

- Our players are cheating in every possible way.
- Our management teams and county boards refuse to accept suspensions and will use any loophole they can find to have them reversed.
- Our administrators point blank refuse to make a stance against the above behaviour by players, management and county boards, and as a result they undermine referees on a weekly basis.
- Our pundits don't understand the rules, don't like the rules, and cannot leave behind their county loyalties, so are unable to form an objective assessment of any incident, which unfortunately adds fuel to the fire that,
- Our supporters seem genuinely unable to accept any black or red card against their team as anything other than biased, inconsistent refereeing. They beat the "all we want is consistency" drum every week... until consistency doesn't suit them.

I've had rants against referees both weeks on Twitter, and know am fully aware that I'm just as bad as the people I'm condemning above.

We're getting the referees we deserve.

I would agree with all of this.

[Mayo4Sam14]

It's an amateur sport and the quality of referees is just that - amateur

[Esmarelda]

The linesmen should be allowed enter the field of play and act as additional referees.

On the Mayo "penalty", it was impossible for McQuillan to keep pace with that attack. If one of the linesmen (covering that half of the field as in soccer) was allowed step in toward the centre of the field he'd have been able to tell McQuillan that it wasn't a penalty.

We have seven officials and six of them do f**k all.

[rodney trotter]

Dave Goldrick reffing yesteday wasn't going to make a major difference, unless he has eyes in the back of his head.

[David McKeown]

The linesmen should be allowed enter the field of play and act as additional referees.

On the Mayo "penalty", it was impossible for McQuillan to keep pace with that attack. If one of the linesmen (covering that half of the field as in soccer) was allowed step in toward the centre of the field he'd have been able to tell McQuillan that it wasn't a penalty.

We have seven officials and six of them do f**k all.

I don't have too much of a problem with referees who get decisions wrong such as the Dublin penalty yesterday, it's genuinely not their fault, firstly we have no idea what they saw from their perspective and most things that happen on the pitch are open to interpretation. I for one thought the Mayo penalty was cast iron.  Secondly the game is too big and too fast and too professional for modern referees and something needs to be done to assist them.

What I have a major issue with though is the number of inter county referees who clearly don't understand the rules. Duffy's decision not to award the penalty to Monaghan v Tyrone despite giving the foul and booking Morgan was a prime example of that. Those kinds of things are becoming more common these last few years and are inexcusable. I remembering Padraig Hughes refereeing our club a few years ago and moving a 45m free on the sideline to the middle of the 13m line for dissent. When asked why he did that by a club mate after the game his reply was that all dissent in injury time was automatically a 13m free.

[sligoman2]

I sound like a broken record, but no doubt in my mind the answer is to have 2 refs for each inter-county games

[theticklemister]

I thought mcquillan done very well yesterday.

[Rossfan]

I sound like a broken record, but no doubt in my mind the answer is to have 2 refs for each inter-county games

As long as they're not from Sligo 

[general_lee]

I sound like a broken record, but no doubt in my mind the answer is to have 2 refs for each inter-county games

Even better have a TMO. I've said it before not too long ago on here, not too hard a measure to implement either. Have another inter county ref up in the hogan with a TV monitor where he can watch a quick replay of any incidents so that the correct decision can be made. Have him hooked up via ear piece to the ref so that they are in constant communication.

Surely this would reduce the amount of time energy and resources wasted on appeals and the like, and possibly make players think twice before striking, headbutting or hair-ruffling an opponent. Will also improve the level of refereeing as a ref can make the big decisions with nearly no chance of getting them wrong.

[From the Bunker]

I sound like a broken record, but no doubt in my mind the answer is to have 2 refs for each inter-county games

Jez, we have 4 umpires, 2 linesmen and a 4th official (Seven people to help the Referee). SEVEN. Educate these lads in the game, give these lads advisory powers to help the Referee. Spread the pressure of the decisions. Take timekeeping away from him, use of umpires to determine penalties. Use of all 7 (including 4th official) for off the ball decisions and all the on the ball decisions out of view of the referee.

[David McKeown]

I sound like a broken record, but no doubt in my mind the answer is to have 2 refs for each inter-county games

Even better have a TMO. I've said it before not too long ago on here, not too hard a measure to implement either. Have another inter county ref up in the hogan with a TV monitor where he can watch a quick replay of any incidents so that the correct decision can be made. Have him hooked up via ear piece to the ref so that they are in constant communication.

Surely this would reduce the amount of time energy and resources wasted on appeals and the like, and possibly make players think twice before striking, headbutting or hair-ruffling an opponent. Will also improve the level of refereeing as a ref can make the big decisions with nearly no chance of getting them wrong.

I don't agree with the use of a TMO. There's too much in the game that's open to interpretation and I could easily see the TMO and the ref being in conflict