THE GAA’S NATIONAL Referees Committee will review the time-keeping issues which cropped up in various Allianz Football League games over the weekend.
Monaghan boss Seamus McEneaney, Galway supremo Padraic Joyce and Meath manager Andy McEntee all spoke out in frustration after their respective Division 1 ties ended with disputes over time-keeping.
Six minutes of additional time was announced by the fourth official at the end of the Dublin-Monaghan game, but Ciaran Branagan allowed it rumble on until the 80th minute after several stoppages and two substitutions during that period, much to the annoyance of McEneaney.
Joyce was unhappy that the Tribesmen’s clash against Donegal dragged on until the 78th minute. Five minutes of injury-time was indicated but a stoppage for an accidental collision between Donegal players saw almost three further minutes added on.
And McEntee was furious that nothing more than the allotted four minutes of injury-time was played despite an injury to a Mayo player which delayed the play in the added period.
Bryan Walsh went down with an injury in the 72nd minute at Pairc Tailteann and received treatment.
And play resumed over 30 seconds later, but no extra time was added on to the four minutes indicated.
After the game, an irate McEntee declared there’s “one rule for the Dublins, and the bigger names in this world, and it’s a different rule for everybody else.”
National Referees Committee chairman Willie Barrett said the Royals boss was right to feel aggrieved that the play didn’t continue beyond the 74th minute.
“If there’s any stoppage within the four minutes then you have to add additional time onto that for it to make up for the 30 seconds, or if it was a substitution – whatever it was,” Barrett told The42.
“That is the standard situation in applying the extra time to injuries or to any deliberate delays or whatever.
“I haven’t seen it yet but we will certainly look at all the games over the weekend where there was extra time added on, an alleged stoppage and not enough time added on. We will certainly look at that.”
Barrett confirmed that Branagan was correct in playing nine and a half minutes of added time at the end of Saturday’s draw in Croke Park. He explained that referees were instructed at a pre-league seminar to closely monitor deliberate rundowns of the clock.
He used the example of the All-Ireland club final where Corofin engaged in delaying tactics in stoppage-time, but the game was allowed run for an extra few minutes which resulted in Kilcoo forcing extra-time.
“We’ve actually told our referees to be strong on this and to apply any further time that would be required to deal with those issues,” he said.
“There’s no doubt about it the clock is being ran down and referees are dealing with that by adding on time.”
He explained that it’s at the referee’s discretion how much time to add on for each substitution, depending on how long it takes.
“If you have a substitution within that announced added-time period, then the referee is obliged to add on time and of course, any stoppages for injury or deliberate delays.
“The referee stops his watch when the substitution is called and when the player has entered the field of play and play is allowed to start the watch restarts.
“And I think that’s where the extra time is coming from, in general in the matches. But they have been instructed to add on extra time at all stages.
“We all have noted that the games are running six, seven, eight and maybe nine minutes – as we had on Saturday night – to the normal 70 minutes and particularly you’ll notice nearly always in the second-half. Not so much in the first-half unless there’s serious injury. More substitutes come on in the second-half of the game.”
It prompted calls for the GAA hierarchy to take the time-keeping out of referees’ hands and introduce the model used in Ladies football, which features a countdown and hooter system.
The Tipperary native said the inter-county referees “have given no indication or stated at any meeting that it would be a good idea” for another official to take over time-keeping duties.
“It hasn’t come up yet, but I suppose everything is open…the book is open. I suppose if we see a situation that happened over the weekend and in previous weekends, obviously the referee has an awful lot on his plate now to take in.
“But we certainly haven’t at our level during my time as chairman of the referees for the last three years we haven’t had any discussion with referees about the clock certainly. But that’s for other people within the Association to make that decision.”
Meanwhile, David Clifford’s controversial red card, which occurred after the Kerry captain was engaged in a wrestling match and dragged to the ground by his marker Ben McDonnell, was the biggest talking point from the weekend’s action.
On the advice of his umpires, referee Fergal Kelly brandished a second yellow for Clifford and booked McDonnell for their roles in the incident.
“At all times we would stress the importance of penalising the offender and if that means booking one player singly fair enough,” said Barrett. “If it means booking both players, so be it.
“But we’re strong on the belief that’s important for all officials to be vigilant in penalising off the ball fouling. I have to stress as well, we like to see all the players protected and should be by rule.”
Barrett added that referees are “absolutely aware” about the issue of key players being targeted when they’re on a yellow card and vulnerable to being sent-off in a similar manner to Clifford.
“When a player is on a yellow card, particularly a high-profile lad and very good player, would definitely be targeted, no question about it. Referees would be fully aware of that, there’s no doubt about that, and their officials.
“That would be part of the talk in the dressing room prior to the game in relation to finding any early off the ball incidents and dealing with them at an early stage in the game.”
Former Armagh forward Oisin McConville said on BBC radio yesterday that Croke Park’s system of officiating which allows referees to bring in friends as umpires “as part of a nice day out” should be overhauled.
He added that up and coming referees should be put as part of umpiring teams instead, but Barrett disagrees.
“I’ve always had a belief from back in our time that umpiring is a specialist job and I do not at all agree that ex-referees would all make good umpires.
“Now we have some ex-referees in the GAA at present doing umpiring and we also have club referees in the GAA doing umpiring for inter-county referees. But you have to be trained as an umpire to be able to take in all the action that’s happening at all times.
“I see it as being a non-runner, to be honest with you. You also have to remember that the referee has his four umpires at club level with him and it’s from there he progresses to the national panel with those umpires.
“We do know that a referee might have to make changes to his umpiring team to ensure he has the best, and they do that. For that reason alone, if you like his umpires play a part in getting him onto the national stage and I do believe he should stick with his umpires that brought him that level, provided they are up to the required standard.
“In 2019, we ran umpire seminars in Croke Park, highlighting all the different aspects of games and what might happen and we had a very big attendance at those seminars.”
Finally, Barrett said there is little referees can do around some teams exploiting the head injury rule to enforce a stoppage of the game.
“The problem we have at refereeing level is that when a player goes down in football they will claim it’s a head injury and the referee is powerless to restart the game. He must ensure the medics look at that player in the interest of health and safety.
“We trust the players. The referee cannot take a chance on that if a player goes down and says he has a head injury. The referee isn’t qualified to make a judgement call on that, he has to call the medics and the doctor on duty has to assist in that regard. What he can do though is he can ask the doctor as to the precise nature of the injury.
“If the doctor tells him it’s a head injury then he’s obliged to stop the game. But if the doctor or whatever medical personnel tells him that it’s not, well then he can say that he’s playing on.”
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