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How Do We Protect Match Officials And What Can Be Done To Help Improve Officials And Respect Towards Them

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Having Two referees is very possible. Firstly you wouldn't lose the majority of young referees who give it a go as they are abused by parents /players/coaches. When you ref with someone else it gives you a boost that someone has your back and that you are not facing the firing squad on your own. And 2 pairs of eyes is always better than one. It works. AFL fans roar and shout at each other, at players , managers, officials etc but you wont get any player or management engaging in it as the consequences are severe. Zero tolerance. Cic-Saor (Donegal) - Posts: 4 - 02/09/2022 16:12:30 2439439 Link
Club football is taken incredibly seriously, it's tribal, them lot versus us.. hyped up antics can boil over and result in moments of reckless and absurd behaviour It wasn't long ago a mass brawl was reported involving high profile club teams in the media, now we have a referee being supposedly assaulted and it's making front page news.. now a referee strike off the back of it.. That's terrible noise There's no doubt some toxic nature at the core of our games that's consistently papered over with nauseating and carefully orchestrated holier than thou marketing campaigns jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 02/09/2022 16:20:14 2439441 Link
Replying To Canuck: "In amatuer junior hockey the 12 year olds get paid for refereeing. In Ireland we just love doing the poor mouths. No wonder we are jibed and made fun of. Pay the people who want and are trained properly with non ambigious game rules. There will be plenty candidates to put two referees on the pitch. Get rid of the thugs who abuse by having strict consequences. To hell with what other sports do or dont do. Clean up are own house." People can nearly do what they like nowadays and if anyone says anything they are infringing on their rights etc etc. Human beings are animals, and some can be quite nasty ones at that. The things some like to do, such as promiscuity, drunkeness, gluttony, laziness, violence, selfishness, a belief in the wants of the individual over the needs of the community, are unfortunately the things that are the least conductive to a stable society, so it is not a good thing that people can do what they want these days. With regard to respect for authority - children/young people only learn that from others so if they do not have respect the blame lies with others - we see it all the time - teachers get very little respect, priests, Gardai, fire personnel, nurses, ethnic minorities, people who are any way "different" etc etc. Why is this?? Where is our moral compass?? We simply do not seem to have one anymore and if anyone says anything they are castigated. It has come more and more into sports also. Ever before this Roscommon incident happened We have seen - no respect for opposition players, feigning injury, feigning fouls to get a free, no respect for referees or officals, sledging and almost jumping into opponents faces and whooping when a free is given to them. And worst of all - a failure to accept sanctions and using every legal means possible to overturn them. Everyone and everything is to blame except ourselves. It is endemic and I hope all the do gooders who would not dare correct any person for doing some wrong realise and understand the massive disservice they are doing to society. bruffgael (Limerick) - Posts: 143 - 02/09/2022 16:58:06 2439449 Link
Replying To Canuck: "In amatuer junior hockey the 12 year olds get paid for refereeing. In Ireland we just love doing the poor mouths. No wonder we are jibed and made fun of. Pay the people who want and are trained properly with non ambigious game rules. There will be plenty candidates to put two referees on the pitch. Get rid of the thugs who abuse by having strict consequences. To hell with what other sports do or dont do. Clean up are own house." And much of this behaviour is dressed up as "passion". bruffgael (Limerick) - Posts: 143 - 02/09/2022 16:59:36 2439450 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "You mean pay officials for intercounty games Canuck? Not a bad plan but like you say draw up clear unambiguous rules first and see that officials implement the rules consistently." GreenandRed I lived in a rural community of about 3000. In that community the united church has a pastor and an associate pastor who make over 100,000 a year and work in educational programs etc. The catholic church is also supportered. There are hockey leagues starting in October, baseball and soccer leagues in summer. There are many many unpaid volunteers who run these sports. However they pay what they see it necessary to be paid to be an effective body. There is no begrudary he/she is getting this and that. You pay when you sign up your kids to play. O that rules out people who can not afford it. No it does not as these kids are covered by a small amount from the other contributors and a donation box in the local coffee shop. Again no begrudary or looking across the dressing room thinking he/she does not pay. No problem with kids from outside the area comming in, paying up and not called blow ins. Again the refs are paid from a young age and yes they will run games for the physical and mentaly challenged kids as volunteers. Ireland to me is and was always the best place in the world but we are flawed in our parochial thinking. History shows us when we were done beating the enemy we killed each other. There are great people in business, sport, (including the GAA) etc. but there are way too many still who would put us back in the mud huts with their thinking. Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 2660 - 02/09/2022 17:00:36 2439451 Link
Gist of thread seems to be: 1. simplify the rules 2. have 2 refs (needed); and 2 paid ones for inter county c'ship games 3. microphone on ref and have him explain All good. GAA refs are brutal at 3 though. Very high-handed. points50swiththeargyllsonthewrongfeet (Tyrone) - Posts: 239 - 02/09/2022 17:00:54 2439453 Link
Replying To ForeverBlue2: "What a load of nonsense… 2 referees.. It would just mean you'd have 2 people making a mess of it instead of one…. Simplify the rules … use the count down clock like in ladies football and for all county matches insure the 4 umpires are qualified referees… Give the 4 umpires and 2 linesmen more powers to alert the referee to any incidents that occur off the ball…. For God sake if 7 officials can't keep an eye on what's going on it's time to forget the whole thing… and some geniuses want to add an 8th … Heaven help us…" And where in God's name are you going to get these 4 umpire/referees from? It's a struggle to get 4 lay umpires for any game as it is without taking from the limited pool of qualified refs available and who's going to pay them cause they ain't going to umpire a game when they could be reffing somewhere else for a few bob. It's the same time commitment. What difference would it make to violence and abuse towards refs which is the thread topic? Sindar (Roscommon) - Posts: 348 - 02/09/2022 17:06:47 2439454 Link
Replying To Galway9801: "Obviously a club underage match isn't going to be attracting much coverage, unless something like this happens if course, but I really do think that refs should give interviews after a game,, to the likes of Marty Morrissey etc, just like players and managers, explaining decisions, talking about their feelings on the game. It would imo help to make them come across as more relatable, more human, and help eejits like this fella understand that they're normal human beings at the end of the day. Is there a reason why they don't /are prevented from giving interviews?" Have Marty interview the referee? God almighty. Why should they have to explain a decision to every Tom Dick and Harry who never took up a whistle in his life? Should he go through blow for blow every decision? Should we also interview every player who hit a bad wide, or a bad pass, as to what they were thinking, i.e. explain their decision? Lets get real. Referees make the best decision in their opinion in a split second. Meanwhile every coward on Twitter judges them with the benefit of instant replay, commentators, pundits. What you are suggesting will do nothing to protect referees, in fact it will have the opposite effect as they become even more lambs to the slaughter when Marty says "the replay clearly showed.....". ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1128 - 02/09/2022 17:42:08 2439461 Link
Replying To ForeverBlue2: "What a load of nonsense… 2 referees.. It would just mean you'd have 2 people making a mess of it instead of one…. Simplify the rules … use the count down clock like in ladies football and for all county matches insure the 4 umpires are qualified referees… Give the 4 umpires and 2 linesmen more powers to alert the referee to any incidents that occur off the ball…. For God sake if 7 officials can't keep an eye on what's going on it's time to forget the whole thing… and some geniuses want to add an 8th … Heaven help us…" Well I think what you are proposing is 8 instead of 2....heaven help us. ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1128 - 02/09/2022 17:44:22 2439462 Link
How can what happened be anything to do with the rules of the game? The way you protect refs is by applying the full force of the law of the land on criminals who assault people. The way we protect refs is for clubs to filter out people who clearly have issues and shouldnt be near any sport. arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 02/09/2022 18:25:42 2439464 Link
Replying To Cic-Saor: "Having Two referees is very possible. Firstly you wouldn't lose the majority of young referees who give it a go as they are abused by parents /players/coaches. When you ref with someone else it gives you a boost that someone has your back and that you are not facing the firing squad on your own. And 2 pairs of eyes is always better than one. It works. AFL fans roar and shout at each other, at players , managers, officials etc but you wont get any player or management engaging in it as the consequences are severe. Zero tolerance." Having 2 refs doesnt solve many of the problems with the gmae. it doesnt help improve interpretation of rules or how refs are treated which is a major problem in the game. there is 7 officials with the ref, 2 linesmen and 4 umpires. give the linesmen and umpires more powers before adding yet another actual official on the field of play. KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3510 - 02/09/2022 18:38:16 2439465 Link
The amount of abuse shouted at referees during games is unreal. This is mainly due to vague rules misunderstood by players as well as the crowd. I'd hope more understanding would lead to less abuse. Give the refs a microphone in inter-county games and broadcast their feed just like rugby referees do. You might still not agree why a decision was given a certain way but at least you'd understand the reasoning behind it. After a while of this everyone would understand the applied rules a bit better (e.g. Steps rule doesn't exist - a one handed tackle is ok but two hands are out). It might even prompt the powers to put the refereed rules into the rule book. That would trickle down through the game and hopefully prevent scenes like this one. Aside from that define the punishments better in GAA and stick to them even on appeal. Finally in this case where an assault is committed refer the matter to the Garda. brianb (Kildare) - Posts: 279 - 02/09/2022 18:39:59 2439466 Link
Replying To ExiledInWex: "Have Marty interview the referee? God almighty. Why should they have to explain a decision to every Tom Dick and Harry who never took up a whistle in his life? Should he go through blow for blow every decision? Should we also interview every player who hit a bad wide, or a bad pass, as to what they were thinking, i.e. explain their decision? Lets get real. Referees make the best decision in their opinion in a split second. Meanwhile every coward on Twitter judges them with the benefit of instant replay, commentators, pundits. What you are suggesting will do nothing to protect referees, in fact it will have the opposite effect as they become even more lambs to the slaughter when Marty says "the replay clearly showed....."." For starters, calm down. You ask should he explain every decision? Of course not, he'd be there all day ffs. I never suggested anything of the sort. If he can be given an opportunity to explain why he made a controversial decision it might help to relieve some of the animosity., at least help people see things from his pov. And whether or not people have ever picked up a whistle in their life is totally irrelevant. People will have their opinions on an issue regardless of experience. I've never been a politician but I've my opinions on politics. I've never been a soccer defender but still think Harry Maguire is pretty dodgy. Also, your snide little "replays clearly showed" remark would obviously hold no water as the ref doesn't have access to replays, as I'm sure he would be more than happy to point out. You ask should we interview players who hit bad wides etc? We already do, players and managers are often taken to task publicly over their mistakes, are allowed to explain them and reflect on them, rightly so too. Finally, by claiming that keyboard warrior social media critics are cowards, you are unintentionally and stupidly implying that confronting a ref face to face is somehow an act of bravery. Wrong message to send out. Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1708 - 02/09/2022 18:59:20 2439467 Link
Replying To arock: "How can what happened be anything to do with the rules of the game? The way you protect refs is by applying the full force of the law of the land on criminals who assault people. The way we protect refs is for clubs to filter out people who clearly have issues and shouldnt be near any sport." Yes it has to do with the rules. Why do the perpetrators resort to the violence ? Because they know there are so many loop holes and nods and winks they will get away with it. No club will call out there own thug at any game and if they do it should be put in the guinness book of records. A county board official call the cops or a member of the officiating team and the attacker is arrested there and then in the full view of everyone. Of course a stigma would be attached to this person by the supporting cast of the thug. It should be the same as if you indiscrimately stike an unsuspecting person on the street. Once convicted your are banned from all sporting events for life. "Ah its out of chartacter for him " "He's a nice auld lad" He is a crimial and deserves a criminal record and his son or grandson will be doing the same in 20 years. Why is the law diiferent because it is a sporting event ? Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 2660 - 02/09/2022 19:09:01 2439469 Link
Replying To bruffgael: "People can nearly do what they like nowadays and if anyone says anything they are infringing on their rights etc etc. Human beings are animals, and some can be quite nasty ones at that. The things some like to do, such as promiscuity, drunkeness, gluttony, laziness, violence, selfishness, a belief in the wants of the individual over the needs of the community, are unfortunately the things that are the least conductive to a stable society, so it is not a good thing that people can do what they want these days. With regard to respect for authority - children/young people only learn that from others so if they do not have respect the blame lies with others - we see it all the time - teachers get very little respect, priests, Gardai, fire personnel, nurses, ethnic minorities, people who are any way "different" etc etc. Why is this?? Where is our moral compass?? We simply do not seem to have one anymore and if anyone says anything they are castigated. It has come more and more into sports also. Ever before this Roscommon incident happened We have seen - no respect for opposition players, feigning injury, feigning fouls to get a free, no respect for referees or officals, sledging and almost jumping into opponents faces and whooping when a free is given to them. And worst of all - a failure to accept sanctions and using every legal means possible to overturn them. Everyone and everything is to blame except ourselves. It is endemic and I hope all the do gooders who would not dare correct any person for doing some wrong realise and understand the massive disservice they are doing to society." We're living in a world where an influential tiktoker recently described Drew Barrymore dancing in the rain as an act of racism. Perhaps its time to give up..... Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1708 - 02/09/2022 19:15:21 2439471 Link
And another thing which should be called out is the use of this word "alleged". There was NOTHING ALLEGED ABOUT THIS INCIDENT. It happened in broad daylight and was witnessed. bruffgael (Limerick) - Posts: 143 - 02/09/2022 19:42:48 2439477 Link
Replying To Canuck: "GreenandRed I lived in a rural community of about 3000. In that community the united church has a pastor and an associate pastor who make over 100,000 a year and work in educational programs etc. The catholic church is also supportered. There are hockey leagues starting in October, baseball and soccer leagues in summer. There are many many unpaid volunteers who run these sports. However they pay what they see it necessary to be paid to be an effective body. There is no begrudary he/she is getting this and that. You pay when you sign up your kids to play. O that rules out people who can not afford it. No it does not as these kids are covered by a small amount from the other contributors and a donation box in the local coffee shop. Again no begrudary or looking across the dressing room thinking he/she does not pay. No problem with kids from outside the area comming in, paying up and not called blow ins. Again the refs are paid from a young age and yes they will run games for the physical and mentaly challenged kids as volunteers. Ireland to me is and was always the best place in the world but we are flawed in our parochial thinking. History shows us when we were done beating the enemy we killed each other. There are great people in business, sport, (including the GAA) etc. but there are way too many still who would put us back in the mud huts with their thinking." Not sure what question you're answering there. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7345 - 02/09/2022 20:35:30 2439479 Link
One of the biggest problems I see is the obsession with winning at underage level. The winning is all that matters mantra leads to dreadful behaviour. The ignorance around this within clubs is staggering. The aim of all clubs at underage level should be player retention and not winning games. The amount of young players who are left to rot on a sideline just so a coach can try to claim an underage title is shocking. Parents can also be very ignorant around this. These players could be late developers or future servants of the club in administrative or coaching roles, but they inevitably drift away. The juvenile stars often don't continue playing either but it's too late then knocking on the doors of the players who were ignored for so long. Rebel2020 (Cork) - Posts: 75 - 02/09/2022 21:37:42 2439487 Link
Replying To indaknownow: "We need Zero tolerance to this and all disciplinary issues. I'm not saying this issue is any way related to the disciplinary fiascos we had during the summer but the culture in the GAA is that rules are more guidelines and that there is always a loophole. so until all loopholes for players and supporters are closed there is no real deterrant. I heard recently that a mentor (repeat offender) in my own county (I live in #Wexford now) got 6 month for verbal abuse of a referree at a minor game and the club got a serious fine. I welcome this sort of action. as far as I know recommended sanctions for disciplinary issues are minimums. County boards can recommend higher sanctions. Id be looking for a lifetime ban for whoever did this in Roscommon." It's time the GAA made a stand on this and this is the perfect opportunity. We need to take verbal and physical abuse of referees out of the GAA and the only way you're going to do that is get draconian measures implemented AND THEN STICK TO THEM. It will make a farce of it for 3 months but when the many offenders realise that they aren't getting the suspension overturned on appeal, the penny will drop. Its now or never but judging by the silence from Croke Park, my guess is never. FootblockREF (Monaghan) - Posts: 563 - 02/09/2022 21:48:43 2439489 Link
Replying To bruffgael: "And another thing which should be called out is the use of this word "alleged". There was NOTHING ALLEGED ABOUT THIS INCIDENT. It happened in broad daylight and was witnessed." its a legal term and it is still an alleged incident of assault... KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3510 - 02/09/2022 21:59:50 2439494 Link