Over the years referees have been unfairly lambasted from Pillar to post. Critisized and disliked because of decisions they have made for or against teams. Alot of times we can question decisions but other times we have seen referees abused from the stands, we've even seen physical abuse referees have endured at times in this sport , So when one does make a mistake , It takes a very brave and honest man to come out and admit he was wrong. I admire Michael Duffy for doing this. He didnt have to, He could have just let it go and moved on to his next match. But i think he deserves alot of credit. He is only human after all and people do make mistakes, I think we all under estimate just how hard it is to be a referee , Sure we can all referee the game from the stands and terraces , But we arent the one who has to make them split second decisions in the heat of the moment.. Sometimes referees get them wrong but most of the time get them right. But anyway credit where its due.

Fair play to him. But it is a sad reflection on referees that this is virtually unheard of in the game.

Which mistake did he admit to ??

He had at least a dozen others !!!!

Should be given a rest

I thought he reffed the Longford V Laois game very well although I wouldn't have agreed with every call he made. Seemed to be a bit harder on Down than on Monaghan on Sunday but thankfully it didn't affect the result. It wouldn't have been an easy game to ref with the usual amount of off-the-ball Ulster championship stuff going on.

Maybe he had an off day, Pat McEnaney quick to point out how good Duffy was with the square ball rule in his 1st game, however he made an inordinate amount of mistakes in the Down-Monaghan game, he has apologised for One of these. No doubt, if Monaghan had of won, there would have been no admission from Duffy. On the day he was not fit for purpose as a referee, as I said maybe an off day, however when players put in 6 months of effort, they do deserve to be treated with fairness by the referee. I disagree with you WaynoI, this was not a brave action by Duffy, but withdrawing from the referees panel and retraining / learning the rules, would be. Duffy got lucky cos Down won, should another team pay the penalty for this . . .

Bit harsh there, Burnsey. I'm sure he went out to do the best he could on the day, the same way the players do.

100% agree with burnsey.

Exactly Keeper, and if a player doesn't perform he gets taken off. I'm not suggesting he delibertedly targetted Down in the game on Sunday (although on occasion from where I was sitting it sure did feel that way), however his awareness, reactions, quickness of mind and decision making abilities were not up to intercounty level in my opinion, and I'm asking the questions rather than pat him of the back for admitting 1 mistake

Agree with you 100% Burnsey. And comments that Duffy was 'brave' to admit that he was wrong on the Monaghan penalty completely miss the point, which was that the standard of refereeing was bizarre to say the least. Now if Duffy was to watch the whole game again and acknowledge all the other wrong calls he made [mostly against Down] then that would be 'brave'.

If it had just been ONE mistake then fair enough you would say "No problem, carry on" as usual but Mr Duffy got at least a dozen decisions wrong and most of those went against Down. When an official has an off day bad decisions mostly go against BOTH team; this didn't happen in that match so people are entitled to question his performance. No one likes to lambast players or officials in an amateur sport but at the same time if you put yourself up there in the public eye then you have to expect the fallout.

Why only drop the referee the minute he makes a mistake? I say revoke his membership and expel him from the organisation. Sure refereeing is so easy and there's millions more waiting to take their place. Everyone wants to do it, it's so glamorous. Look at all the rewards these people get, a whole carvery dinner on the way back from the match! Sure there are times where posters on here can't agree on a decision after a million replays but the referee should always know better than that.

As a neutral at the game on Sunday, i thought the referee showed a clear bias to Monaghan. It is all well and good admitting you were wrong but when you have made the level of mistakes the ref did on Sunday then it isnt acceptable. Also i doubt the referee would have admitted his mistakes if they werent highlighted on the Sunday game.

Doublehop, "a" mistake would have been forgiven, much in the way you have forgiven McEnaney for the square ball in 2010. In the case of Duffy, a little bit more than 1 mistake as you well know . . .

Burnsey...you ask him to withdraw from the Ref's Panel as you believe he made a number of mistakes?? So you would apply the same to a player or manager on the basis.

After all everyone is asking for consistency.

As someone neutral I could not believe how bad the referee was. In a tight game nearly every decision went Monaghan's way and it could have cost Down the win.

How he got to this level I'll never know.
This is what we get wk in wk out.

Taken from Darragh Ó Sé's column in the Irish Times today.

ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REFEREES? Duffy on duty again this weekend

Whatever about Seánie Johnston, now for one of the actual real issues that we should be worrying about.

Michael Duffy's performance as referee in the Down v Monaghan game on Sunday was something that is far more serious when it comes to the day-to-day life of the GAA. I know Pat McEnaney has said Duffy holds his hand up over Tommy Freeman's goal but that's all very well at this stage, seeing as Down came back and won the match.

Imagine if Monaghan had gone through. Imagine the fall-out.

And what happens? Nothing. Duffy gets another game six days later - Longford v Derry in the qualifiers on Saturday evening. How can that be right? How can there be no price to pay for such a huge mistake? If a player made a howler like that, he'd be for the bench and rightly so. But referees carry on as if there are no consequences.

The standard of refereeing is the shabbiest part of our association, purely because we don't take it seriously. We wave it off and say they have a hard job to do but we don't support them in doing it. Of course they have a hard job, which is why I think they should be paid.

I've been saying it for ages - no player would have a problem with a referee getting paid if it meant they were better at the job. They're such a crucial part of the game and we're far too blasé about it.

I dont know who is worse, him or the brother?

Did he just admit the one mistake?- or the litany of errors he made.

Pat McEnaney is a Monaghan man.