GAELIC GAMES NEWS:IT MIGHT have cost the Leinster Council a nice financial bonus and denied Kildare the chance of a replay, but match referee Cormac Reilly made "the correct call" in awarding the late, game-winning free for Dublin in Sunday's Leinster football semi-final at Croke Park.
That’s the view of National Referees Committee chairman Mick Curley – who also defended the consistency of refereeing in the championship to date, and believes “emotion” often plays a part in the post-match criticism of refereeing decisions.
“Nobody has a problem with referees being questioned when they’re wrong,” says Curley. “That’s fully accepted by referees, and we’ve no problem with that. But we’ve seen comments in the last 48 hours where it goes past that, when referees are being accused of making wrong calls, when in actual fact they haven’t.”
The call in question here was Reilly’s awarding of a free to Dublin, after the Meath referee deemed Bernard Brogan was fouled by Aindriú Mac Lochlainn as both players raced towards the ball, deep into injury-time: Brogan himself easily converted the resulting free, giving Dublin the 1-12 to 1-11 victory.
“In that particular incident the referee made a call, and it was the correct call, no question about that,” says Curley. “It caused some controversy, and I can understand why some people would want to see another game like that again between those two teams. But it doesn’t always work out that way, and to criticise a referee for that is wrong.
“I think emotion played a very big part. I also think there was more to that particular incident than the TV cameras picked up. I think it might have missed the very beginning of it, whereas Cormac Reilly saw the entire incident, because he was looking in that direction as the ball was travelling.
“In general I think maybe we are seeing more incidents highlighted, not just this past weekend. But mostly surrounding one or two particular games.
“Sometimes it distracts attention from an awful lot of other things. I don’t what to get into a conflict with managers, and I would have too much respect for them to do that. Although looking at media comments, in general, in fairness the opinions are usually well balanced.”
Curley doesn’t deny that referees can and often do make mistakes, and costly ones too, such as Martin Sludden’s incorrect awarding of a late goal to Meath in last summer’s Leinster final against Louth: “That was a referring error. We’ve admitted that, and the referee has admitted that. We’ve no qualms in saying it was a mistake, and a big mistake, given what it cost. And we do our best not to allow that to happen again.
“And I would say the consistency this summer has improved. We’re not daft enough to think we’re anywhere near perfection. We’re not. But we’re improving the structures there for training referees and umpires, and that will continue to improve into future years. We will never be perfect, but we work towards it.”
However the idea that such criticism might somehow be turning referees away from the game is not something the National Referees Committee is so far concerned with.
“Going on the evidence I’ve seen so far that is not the case. I don’t think these incidents have exacerbated the problems where referee recruitment was a problem already, and it certainly has not affected my own county, Galway. We’ve had more referees come forward to do the job in the last two years than we’ve had in the previous 10 years, some with the clubs, others outside of that.
“And in general I don’t think criticism does impact on recruitment. My only fear is that it might turn off the people that are in the game, rather than stopping people from coming into it.”
The end result means Dublin are looking forward to the Leinster final against Wexford on July 10th – a repeat of the 2008 pairing – while Kildare must travel to Laois for their second-round qualifier on Saturday week.
Dublin did pay some price for Sunday’s victory, as midfielder Michael Dara Macauley looks set to miss the Leinster final due to the broken finger sustained towards the end of the first half.
Manager Pat Gilroy confirmed a finger had been broken in two places, and this could keep Macauley sidelined for up the four weeks – although his replacement on the day, Eamonn Fennell, and also Ross McConnell are now back to match fitness, and thus provide ample cover.
Kildare do get the chance to exact some revenge when they play Dublin in tomorrow’s Leinster minor semi-final at Parnell Park, which has a 7.30pm start, with tomorrow’s other semi-final involving an equally-timely pairing of Meath against Louth, which also throws in at 7.30pm, at Páirc Tailteann, Navan.
The Dublin football minors are managed by former All-Ireland winner Dessie Farrell, and should they progress to the Leinster final, it would result in five final appearances for Dublin – as the county football seniors, and minor, senior and under-21 hurlers have already progressed.
The Dublin senior hurlers will be without forward Ryan O’Dwyer for Sunday’s Leinster final against Kilkenny at Croke Park, due to the red card picked up in the semi-final win over Galway, although this has been confirmed as only a four-week ban – rather than the feared eight-weeks – which means O’Dwyer will be available for the All-Ireland quarter-final on July 24th, should Dublin fail to win, or go straight into the All-Ireland semi-final.
