GAA president Seán Kelly has requested referees to crack down on indiscipline and rigorously enforce the rules on aggressive fouls.
The championship got under way in earnest at the weekend and, although there was a relatively low level of incidents, it was noticeable in the Limerick-Tipperary match that referee Diarmuid Kirwan was letting very little go as he handed out six yellow cards.
Fr Séamus Gardiner, the PRO of the National Referees Committee (NRC), said that the president's wishes were made known at a recent meeting of referees.
"Seán Kelly delivered a message to the referees meeting through Frank Burke that he wanted to see rules strictly enforced, particularly in relation to aggressive fouls.
"He wanted to see yellow and red cards shown in all cases where the rules demanded them. This was a strong message to implement the proper sanction for aggressive fouls."
The relatively uncontroversial start to the summer will have come as a relief to the NRC, which had to cope with problems from an early stage last year with a number of high-profile incidents going either unpunished or inadequately punished.
In Thurles, Kirwan survived the malfunctioning of the radio link with his linesmen to have a sound game. Limerick's Andrew O'Shaughnessy was lucky not to see yellow after an early incident, but, otherwise, foul play was consistently punished.
Apart from getting into a spot of bother playing advantage in a couple of Limerick attacks, the Cork referee will be happy enough with his performance.
Kelly has been busy on the disciplinary front this year with a raft of administrative reforms going through congress, including the restructuring of the Games Administration Committee and the institution of a new appeals procedure.
Earlier in the season there was the experimental disciplinary rules, which sank in a cacophony of complaint despite making a positive contribution to highlighting the level of fouling in the games as well as ultimately restraining it. According to Gardiner, the experiments were difficult for referees.
"It was an awkward situation because the general feeling was that they wouldn't continue after congress, and that made it a bit unreal, particularly when you had the knockout stages of the leagues being played under rules that had already been scrapped. Once they were gone we didn't discuss them any further.
"Of all the people in the GAA, referees do what they are told. Other people make the rules and referees implement them. My own view is that in future the NRC should have a bigger say in the drafting of experimental rules."
It was frequently observed during the trial period that, were the standard rules to be applied properly, there wouldn't be any need for the experimental measures. Now that appears to be the desired policy for the coming championship.
There are other urgent matters facing the NRC, and a priority will be recruitment.
A number of referees have retired in the past couple of years, and whereas there is a supply of up-and-coming successors these will have to start taking bigger and more high-profile matches, says Gardiner. "The newer referees will have to step up, because new faces are needed at the top level. We would feel that there's been improvement, but you have to wait and see how they'll do in the heat of the championship."
One other initiative that isn't quite going to plan concerns the training of umpires. It had originally been envisaged that umpires would be specially trained and, once a pool had been established, independently appointed to matches.
This would be a radical departure from the current situation, which sees referees select their own officials. But according to Gardiner this is an issue on which referees have strong views.
"Training sessions were held for umpires in individual provinces, but referees want to keep their own umpires. They're definite about that and happier with their own guys.
"They have been told that the performance of umpires will be part of the assessment of refereeing performances and will have a bearing on match appointments.
"I know of a couple of referees who have made the painful decision to replace umpires who have been with them for a long time."
The matter was addressed in last month's annual report of GAA director general, Liam Mulvihill, who had this to say: "A system has evolved whereby the referee is responsible for his own umpires. This can cause problems for a referee, due to local loyalties etc.
"Where a referee has a poor umpire, we have to depend on the referee himself to replace the umpire, or the alternative is to refuse to appoint the referee to major games.
"I think the central referees appointments committee will have to adopt a more pro-active role with regard to the appointment of umpires in the coming year."
