Opening Shot – Winning trumps respect for referees

When Mickey Harte criticises a referee it is for good reason

By John Hughes

There are some things in this life that you’re not supposed to do, but which you’d be stupid not to.

Taking mood altering substances would be an example. They may technically be poisons, but Lord knows, life would be a very dull affair without them. I know a good scotch is the only way I can get through a Martin Breheny column anyway.

GAA reflects wider life, so it should be no surprise that we too have a few of those unspoken lines which need to be crossed every now and then.

One of those lines which I’ve become more conscious of in the past few years is the inviolability of the referee.

The GAA has the Give Respect, Get Respect campaign. It’s a great slogan, it’s a very noble sentiment, but its connection with reality is tenuous.

The main reason for this is that referees don’t help themselves.

Have you ever noticed the way that Brian Cody or Mickey Harte will have no problem taking a cut at a referee after a match if they think they’ve been done over?

Just last Sunday Pete McGrath didn’t think twice about letting Anthony Nolan know what he thought about a heavy Tyrone challenge on Sean Quigley.

These are experienced managers who have scored success at the very top of the game. They don’t do things like slagging refs to blow off steam, they do it because they know it will get them better results.

Once upon a time I would have been death on trying to influence the referee.

I would have thought it counter-productive to get on a match official’s case. The man is only there to referee the game as he sees it, and players or managers getting on to them will only turn them against you.

But I had my eyes opened one day last year. I was managing a side taking a right tanking and our lads were getting it tough to mount any sort of attack at all. It was coming into the last quarter when we had a rare foray forward. One of our players was plainly fouled in a scoring position. The referee waved play on and I just erupted.

“For Christ sake ref, they’re winning 5-19 to 0-2, that’s a free, give us some bit of fair play!”

The referee didn’t take it too well and told me he didn’t think too much of my opinion. I took it on the chin and went back to watching the play, frustrated with myself for having broken one of my own golden rules.

But then a funny thing happened. We started to get frees all over the place. Frees we hadn’t been getting in the 45 minutes previously.

We tagged on five points in that last quarter and, although we were soundly beaten, we had some passages of good play which we could use to build the lads up afterwards.

For the rest of the season I judiciously deployed an odd jab at the ref and I have to say the effectiveness never failed to surprise.

There’s a smart way and there’s a stupid way to do it obviously, but when you see the likes of Cody, Harte, McGrath et al employing it, you know there’s something to it.

It’s not nice, and I don’t feel proud of doing it. But now I wouldn’t hesitate to get on a referee’s case if I felt that’s what my team needed.

I’m sure referees don’t enjoy this sort of interference with their management of a match, and it doesn’t do the spectacle of the game much good either.

Short of making referees wear earplugs, it’s hard to know how to stamp out this kind of gamesmanship.

Better training to help officials learn how to deal with these sorts of tactics would certainly help.

But I think this is one area where referees have to help themselves too.

Don’t reward bad behaviour by players and management. If you want to get respect, perhaps you need to have respect for yourself and your position first.
comment@gaeliclife.com