The most baffling refereeing decission ever?

[Pangurban]

I have never in many years of playing and watching football seen a point disallowed because of a square ball infringement.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

cheers for that. seems strange if the ball clears the crossbar by a considerable distance

No prob, and indeed, the ref sounds like a right stickler (to put it mildly  )!

Not that much of a stickler otherwise he would have allowed the score I would have thought in accordance with playing rule 4.10 (ii)

ii) When a point is scored from outside the small rectangle and the ball is sufficiently high to be out of reach of all players, the score shall be allowed even though an attacking player may have been within the small rectangle before the ball - provided that the player in question does not interfere with the defence.

Fair enough, just a very bad call it would seem (much worse than being a stickler - being only half familiar with the rules, and then trying to be a stickler).

[stew]

Many years ago in a 4th div game in South Armagh my brother rounded the keeper and his tap over the line was kicked away by their umpire! When he roared ' For fxxx sake REf!' he was sent off for foul language.  Suspension was confirmed by the County Board and ever after he just played soccer!

Proper order too   I wonder how much was riding on the result?

Brilliant altogether!

[Milltown Row2]

[/quote]


As for refereeing standards, I think they should have to sit an exam each year, with the sort of questions on it that we pose on this forum. This would serve two purposes. Firstly it would force the referees to review the rules and be up to date with them. Secondly it would provide comprehensive feedback to the GAA as regards how well the rules are understood/interpreted, so that something could be done to improve consistency.

I presume there is no yearly exam?
[/quote]

Yearly meetings to discuss rule changes and points of order, there is a fitness test also if you are to be considered for Championship games.

I'm sure we could put up a thread on the fouling that goes on that the referee can't see. Off the ball hits, players (with the ball) dragging opposing players down and coning a free. Referees being called cheats and him just brushing it off and not following through with showing cards. I could go on. If the players would play within the rules we'd have less moaning about referees, yes some are bad and in the lower divisions they can unreal, but in the main they are decent guys taking time out to referee our games, without them we'd be unable to play or watch.

I would have give off about referees and decided to give it a go, I played senior standard hurling for a right few years so I thought I'd be grand, catch out the con artists, referee the game the way I'd have liked it refereed when I played, harder than you think, eyes in the back of your head and you need to be thick necked. The abuse the referee gets in club games at all levels is crazy.

[whitey]

Playing for Castlebar Juniors in Kelly Cup versus Kilmeena in Kilmeena. Ref brother in law of opposition manager. Every single call going to the home side for obvious reasons.

A dubious 50 was moved in to the 14 yard line for dissent.

In an attempt to calm the situation down, Castlebar Captain told the dissenter to "don't worry about the ref, just focus on your man".

Unfortunately, he said this within earshot of referee who sent him off for using "foul and abusive language towards an official"