GAA Congress: Referees have ‘no need to fear’ motion on concussion

Referees have no reason to fear the proposed blood-sub type rule for players with suspected concussion, despite fears it would increase their workload or be open to abuse.

That’s the verdict of John Devlin from the Tyrone club Pomeroy Plunketts, the man behind motion 13, which comes before this weekend’s GAA Congress, backed by a similar submission from Fermanagh and the North American Board.

Devlin is also a referee with over 25 years experience and he served on the national panel of referees up until 2011. He has also experienced several situations where players with suspected concussion were encouraged to stay on the field by their managers, rather than be taken off and so eat into the number of permitted substitutions.

“I have come across situations in games, and more club games than county games, where there was a clash of heads or a player got a bad bang on the head, and managers would actually come running on, take a look at the player, and were reluctant to take him off,” says Devlin.

Trickle of blood

“What they might say to the player was to move into full forward or corner forward, or something like that.

“There was another situation where a player had a suspected concussion and again the manager didn’t want to take him off, because he was their best player. Luckily enough, there was also a trickle of blood coming from the player’s nose, so I could order him off as a blood sub. That was actually how this motion first came to me.”

Motion 13 – among 65 motions up for debate at the 2015 Congress in Cavan – effectively replicates the blood-sub rule, allowing for a temporary replacement of a player with suspected concussion.

“It’s definitely something I feel would protect the player,” adds Devlin. “You take the player off, and bring on a replacement, while that player is being assessed by the doctor or whoever. If that player is then deemed okay to come back on, then the replacement comes off again, and it doesn’t count as a substitute.

“There’s a great saying in the GAA, ‘ah, he didn’t want to know’, as if he’d be cowardly otherwise. Another thing about concussion is that you might be okay on the ground, when the manager or doctor is looking at you, but it’s only when you’re up and about that the problems starts to kick in. At the minute, if the player does come off with a suspected concussion, they are being penalised, because that counts as a full substitution.”

It’s over a year now since the GAA introduced its latest 12-page concussion guideline document. However, it stopped short of the blood-sub type rule, for fear it might be abused.

There have been examples of teams that have used all their substitutes leaving concussed players on the pitch. In the 2013 All-Ireland football final Dublin’s Rory O’Carroll played out the last 10 minutes while quite visibly concussed, at which stage Dublin had already made five substitutions, one of which was to replace Jonny Cooper, who had also been concussed.

The similar submission from the Fermanagh club (St Molaise’s) behind motion 13 also come from a referee, Tiernach Mahon, who, like Devlin, also saw the need to extend the blood-sub for cases of suspected concussion.

Knee to the head

“It’s pretty easy for a referee to see a clash of heads, or if a player gets a knee to the head,” says Devlin. “It’s an easy enough call, and I see no reason why a referee couldn’t handle this. At the end of the day, it doesn’t happen too often. I’ve heard some journalists say that between the black card and all that, referees have enough on their hands. But this is such a simple call.”

Nor does Devlin have any fear the proposed rule might be open to abuse: “There’s always that possibility, but again, it should be pretty clear, in my opinion, when the referee sees a clash of heads. There were also some fears of abuse when they brought in the blood-sub rule, but it didn’t happen.

“So I’d be hopeful it would get through, and if not, then maybe Central Council take it on board, do a bit more work on it, so that it does get passed down the road. It might only be one game in a 100 that it will be used. It doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, we need to ensure we protect our players.”