There was a time when the GAA used to make wistful reference to refereeing in rugby and the unconditional respect it enjoyed. That did change as professionalism bit but players still do what they’re told, by and large buttoning their lips when in disagreement.
That cultural difference continues to bedevil Gaelic games. As recently as October 2022, GAA president Larry McCarthy acknowledged that the problems had become deeply ingrained – “in terms of verbal abuse towards referees it’s a cultural thing”.
So, it must be a relief to find a refereeing issue that can be addressed in light of rugby’s difficulties.
On Saturday, Central Council discussed the idea of a television match official in Gaelic games. It was in the light of work done by a work group set up to look at how technologies could assist referees and the strong emerging sentiment has been that the TMO would not be a good fit for the GAA.
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The discussion took in the experiences of other sports and how disruptive the protocols have been in holding up play. Another complaint was that far from achieving its primary purpose – the elimination of controversy – TMOs had simply added to it.
That is simply because the belief that such arbitration can be limited to matters of fact hasn’t survived the mission creep into rewinding play in order to discern infractions that have a nullifying effect on what followed.
This is well and good for things like offside in soccer – if the player is clearly identified as such – or the ball being fumbled in the act of scoring a try in rugby. But there are also examples in which judgment calls have to be made on the video just as they were in real time despite no certainty emerging.
It was also mentioned that an ever-expanding process can undermine referees, a point made by former Test rugby referee Nigel Owens at the end of last year.
“At the moment,” he said, “it feels like the TMO is refereeing matches and that is not a road that rugby should be going down. While technology has its place in the game, how it is used currently needs to change.”
The most ardent advocacy for the introduction of a TMO in Gaelic games generally happens when a significant decision, which is found to be manifestly wrong, is brought to public attention.
It was a coincidence that such an example took place in the All-Ireland club hurling final, just a week before Saturday’s Central Council meeting. Had a television review been available, O’Loughlin Gaels forward Owen Wall’s goal would have been allowed.
The problem is that referee Seán Stack would either have to have requested the intervention there and then or rely on a video official to bring it to his attention.
Within just over 30 seconds, the same ball was dropping over the bar at the other end. For a TMO to signal something was wrong would have necessitated disrupting the match and, presumably, chalking off the point.
This happened in the 2019 All-Ireland hurling semi-final when Lee Chin’s free cleared the Tipperary bar but was caught behind by goalkeeper Brian Hogan. It looked like a great save and in the 27 seconds it took to adjudicate that the point had been scored, Tipp had gone down to the Canal End where John McGrath scored a goal that had to be annulled – a four-point turnaround.
Yet there wasn’t a huge fuss at the time, partly because Tipp won despite the above incident being one of three goals disallowed, and also being a man short.
It was accepted that it was the right decision. Would it be too much to permit that sort of jurisdiction – score detection – to be enabled on the prompt of the Hawk-Eye official, who could also quickly review television coverage? Such events are not common and wouldn’t pose a major threat of disruption.
When Dublin faced Monaghan in last July’s All-Ireland semi-final, there was an incident in the 65th minute that looked like a textbook hand-in tackle by Killian Lavelle on Jack McCaffrey, who was running along the endline.
Television revealed it instead to be a physical challenge in which the Dublin player had spilled the ball out of play; a wide rather than a 45.
The issue for referee Seán Hurson was that he, his match officials and all of a capacity crowd at Croke Park saw the pictures on the big screen. Without too much fuss, the decision was quietly overturned.
RTÉ analyst and former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice probably summarised the feelings of all present: “The correct decision was got to – whether it’s in the rule book or not, it’s the correct decision.”
Would there be any huge objections to allowing the Hawk-Eye official, who after all is a former intercounty referee, alert the match official to something of that nature – a ball going out for a 45 or 65, which by the modern standard of dead-ball striking is generally a point for the attacking team – especially in big championship matches?
These are binary decisions, however: either right or wrong. They don’t consume huge amounts of time like VAR and the rugby TMO are both capable of doing when reviewing the lead-up to scores.
It is very understandable that the GAA work group does not want to replicate situations where a referee is gazing at a big screen, trying to work out what category infraction has been committed.
Video evidence can still be marshalled after a match to review red cards that shouldn’t have been given and, just as importantly, those that should in order to create some deterrent to undetected foul play.
Surely this could be done without upsetting the balance between assisting referees and not making them feel that they’ve been relieved of their duties.
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