Managers and referees iron out issues

GAELIC GAMES NEWS:KERRY MANAGER Jack O'Connor has revealed he and a number of top intercounty football managers (including Conor Counihan of Cork) travelled to meet some of the country's top referees, including David Goldrick and referees spokesman Michael Curley.

O’Connor confirmed in an interview on Kerry Radio the intercounty managers were invited to the meeting in Croke Park two weeks ago to try and iron out problems that arose in last year’s championship, including the handpass.

“It was a very forthright meeting with some of the top referees being there, including the likes of David Goldrick, Marty Duffy and Mick Curley, who is kind of in charge of referees with Pat Doherty,” O’Connor revealed.

“It was a welcome development because up to now, I suppose there was no forum really for managers to express their concerns regarding the playing rules, and things like that. I think that this is a positive development.”

As to whether it was Croke Park who called the meeting O’Connor said: “I am not sure if Croke Park had this meeting on their mind but I took the liberty myself of ringing Mick Curley a few weeks prior to the actual meeting and suggested it would be a good idea to get some of the managers and the top referees into a room to thrash these things out.

“I am not sure that was the catalyst that initiated this meeting but the meeting was organised and it took place and I think it gave a lot of food for thought.

“There was also an agreement that there would be a follow up meeting later on, maybe in the middle of the league, or at the end of it.

“As well as myself, there was Conor Counihan, James McCartan, Kieran McGeeney and one more, whose name slips my mind right now.

“As things turned out I got an idea in the week leading up to the meeting it would be a good idea to bring in some video footage of things that caused us frustration during the year and so I got Eamon Fitzmaurice (Kerry selector) to put together a few of the handpasses that were pulled by referees in big games against us.

“I brought them in and we spent along time discussing the interpretation of the handpass.

“It was funny because Eamon was telling me when he was sending me on the DVD he was still puzzled by the Donnacha Walsh handpass that saw that goal disallowed against Down (in the All-Ireland quarter-final).

“Everybody in the room agreed on the night the handpass was legal, though it is not much consolation to us now. But I said at the time it was a very pivotal moment in that Down game and it was funny sitting down inside a room months later with the Down manager and some top referees and they all agreeing it was a perfectly legal handpass and goal.

“Basically what emerged from that meeting was there isn’t a person in the country outside of the man who introduced that motion to Congress that believes that handpass rule can be implemented.

“I don’t think the referees are for it, because it complicates their lives, the managers are certainly not for it and neither are the players. This leads one to ask the question as to what the delegates were at in allowing this rule change to go through and I think, as Mickey Harte said, it must have slipped through underhand.”

O’Connor says he doesn’t harbour resentment or blame referees: “Look, the game is now played at a million miles an hour and the referee is then asked to decide in a split second whether a handpass was underhand or sideways or lateral.

“I said it before, you had the farcical situation of former players throwing the ball around inside in a studio to see was it lateral or was it underhand and sure that’s a crazy rule when it comes to that – how is a referee supposed to get it right in a fraction of a second?

“Unfortunately, we came out the wrong end of a couple of handpass interpretations.

“Everyone forgets about the one against Tipperary because we won, when Kieran Donaghy was pulled by David Goldrick for a handpass to Bryan Sheehan that ended up in the net, and on the night David Goldrick admitted that it was perfectly legal.

“I honestly don’t think Congress is the place for playing rule changes at all. I think there should be a special committee selected to look at the rules, preferably made up of respected former players who have played at the highest level, or former managers.

“I don’t think Congress is a place for these rule changes at all because there are motions on changes being proposed and passed without proper debate or any thought about the consequences of their implementation.

“This handpass rule change just proves my point that Congress is not where these rule changes should be made. I think people now realise the handpass change has done nothing to improve the game, it has only increased the frustrations of the most important people of all – the players and the managers,” O’Connor concluded.