Sport

Men in black: John Bannon

Age: 37

Mon Aug 21 2000 - 01:00

Age: 37

Occupation: Sales executive, Fagan Office Supplies.

Club: Legan Sarsfields, Longford.

Playing career: "I won two junior, one intermediate and one senior B county medal with the club. The highlight would have to have been the senior B final in 1996 when I got the man of the match award and scored a penalty. Packed it in about two years ago to concentrate on the refereeing."

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Umpire team: "Peter O'Reilly (Abbeylara), Johnny Marlowe (Kenagh), Tommy McCormack (Ballymahon) and Mick Doherty (Legan Sarsfields). Ciaran Mullooly, the RTE Midlands reporter, used to do it up to about three years ago, but with the job he had to give it up - one day he changed out of his white coat from a minor match to work with RTE on the sidelines at the senior game."

Match-day ritual: "I live in Tullamore since I got married two years ago, so we'll meet in Kinnegad on Sunday (yesterday) at 11.0 and be in Croke Park by 1.0. We'll have a look at the minor game, go in to get ready with about 15 minutes of the game left. If I have anything to say to the lads, I'll have said it in the car on the way up. All I really ask for is total concentration."

Career highlight: "The 1998 All-Ireland final between Galway and Kildare. There were only 27 frees in total during the game. It was down to a great attitude from both teams."

Career lowlight: "I had a really difficult National League game (between Donegal and Armagh) a couple of years ago - five were sent off and a player had his leg broken. It was unrefereeable really. Generally, club games are more difficult, though. Whether there's only 50 or 1,000 there, you're on your own and often you have nobody to watch out for anything but yourself."

What rules would you change in football? "Firstly, I'd give linesmen far more power. They should be allowed to award frees for technical fouls. The free taken out of the hand is also causing problems in that frees are not being taken from the right place. It's one thing I'd take from Aussie Rules and that's I'd let the defender stand where the foul occurred."