THE GAA HAVE confirmed that David Gough will take charge of the the 2019 All-Ireland senior football final.
The meeting of five in-a-row-chasing Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park on Sunday, 1 September, will come as the Meathman’s first senior decider to take charge of, with Conor Lane (Cork, standby referee) and Barry Cassidy (Derry) on the line and Sean Hurson (Tyrone) named fourth official.
Gough has been one of the top referees in Gaelic football in 2019 but there’s been furore in the lead-up to his appointment in the Kingdom as the 36-year-old lives and works in Dublin.
“I think it’s an injustice if he does get the game,” former Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice told the Irish Examiner GAA podcast this week, leading the calls.
“I am not going to be dictating here who I feel should get the game, but a final referee has to be a neutral referee.
“Of course when David Gough goes out to referee a match he is trying to be neutral and impartial, I am not questioning that, but it can’t be fair that if you are living and working in a place, that you get to referee an All-Ireland final involving that county.”
While debates kicked off on social media after Fitzmaurice’s comments, Aidan O’Mahony echoed his former manager’s words:
“David Gough shouldn’t be allowed to ref the All-Ireland final, he lives in Dublin and you need a neutral referee, that’s how I feel,” he wrote in his Paddy Power column yesterday.
“It would take questions about his performance away from him if he’s not selected to referee it. With Dublin going for five-in-a-row, it puts huge pressure on him to given that he lives in the capital.
“Gough is undoubtedly in the top three or four referees in the country, but Croke Park must pick a neutral for the final.”
The Slane clubman was in the middle for the Super 8s meetings of Donegal and Mayo, and Dublin and Cork, the Ulster semi-final clash of Donegal and Tyrone and Mayo and Galway’s Connacht semi-final meeting this year.
In the league, he refereed Kerry-Tyrone, Down-Westmeath, Cavan-Roscommon and Cork-Donegal.
Gough was on the whistle for the 2015 All-Ireland minor final between Kerry and Tipperary, the 2013 All-Ireland U21 final meeting of Cork and Galway, the 2017 Connacht final, the 2018 Ulster final, and the 2018 All-Ireland s enior club final.
He will bring family members Eugene Gough, Terry Gough, Stephen Gough and Dean Gough as umpries.
Meanwhile, Cavan native Noel Mooney will referee the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor final meeting of Galway and Cork.
The Cavan Gaels clubman refereed this year’s Super 8s meeting of Cork and Roscommon, the Ulster senior club final, the Leinster SFC meeting of Wicklow and Kildare and the Antrim-Kildare qualifier.
Roscommon’s Paddy Neilan will be the standby referee, with Brendan Cawley (Kildare) also on the line and Jerome Henry (Mayo) named sideline official.
Mooney’s umpires on the day will be Michael Mooney, Michael Graham, Berney Quinn and Martin Sheridan.
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