Joe Canning: GAA can learn from rugby’s model on refereeing

The Galway minors played a challenge match recently and it was one of those games where the referee barely said a word for the whole hour. At one stage, one of our lads asked him what a free was for and the ref’s response was, “I don’t have to explain myself to you.” Then he ran off into his position.

Refereeing isn’t easy. I wouldn’t for a second pretend it is. I know when I played, I was cranky most of the time. I asked questions of every referee. If they gave me the respect of giving me an answer, they got respect back. If they didn’t, I got very frustrated. I know that plenty of referees would probably say I was hard to deal with. I would never pretend I was a saint.

But it never made any sense to me that a referee wouldn’t want to explain his decisions. If you blow your whistle, you obviously have a reason for it. In my experience, the vast, vast majority of players are fine with most decisions as long as they understand why they’re given. It’s being left in the dark and basically being told to go away and stop annoying the ref that drives players bananas.

Some referees are very good at communicating. I always found Fergal Horgan someone who wanted players to know why he was giving frees

Rugby has the right model for this. Any time I watch rugby, I see a referee giving clear instructions as to why he has given a penalty. Players often don’t agree with the decision but they go back to their mark understanding the thinking. I’ve spoken to loads of rugby players down the years and they all say that even when they think a referee is dead wrong, the fact that he explains it means the acceptance is better.

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From a young age, the relationship between players and referees in rugby is seen as an integral part of learning the game. You are taught to respect the referee at all times but there’s an onus on the referee’s side to explain what is going on as well. Whereas in the GAA, it’s far more of a one-way street. You’re always told as a youngster not to give the referee any backchat and that he has a tough job to do. But if there was a culture of properly explaining what he’s doing, it would make it easier on everyone.

That’s why it really stood out to me at this challenge match that the ref wasn’t interested in having any communication with the players. Surely underage level is exactly the time that referees should be making even greater efforts to explain what is happening? It gives the players a better idea of what the referee is looking for and it gives the referee more authority in the game. It seemed weird to me that he wouldn’t want that.

Turning their back

Some referees are very good at communicating. I always found Fergal Horgan someone who wanted players to know why he was giving frees and someone who wanted to set down the ground rules so everyone knew where they stood. But others would literally turn their back and walk away from you if you asked them something. There's nothing more frustrating. If you do that in any walk of life, you'll obviously p**s people off.

I was sent off in a club game a couple of years ago. I got in a tangle with one of the other players and he started shouting at the sideline, “He pulled my helmet off!” I didn’t – it just came off as we both fell to the ground. But the referee came over and gave me a straight red card and sent me off. I asked what it was for and he didn’t answer me.

We appealed the red card and I was cleared because the video evidence showed that I never went near the player’s helmet. Even more frustrating was the fact that afterwards, the linesman said he didn’t tell the ref that I had pulled it off, but the ref then told our club that it was the linesman who brought it to his attention. It could all have been sorted out on the spot with a bit of communication. Only for the fact that the game was televised, I would have been banned and there’d have been no comeback.

Referees have different personalities and that all feeds into it as well. There was one year Barry Kelly was refereeing a league game in Pearse Stadium and halfway through the second half, I was coming over to take a free. Barry was standing there and out of nowhere he went, “Jesus, I haven’t given you a yellow card yet today.” He kind of laughed as he said it. And I kind of laughed too.

But later, thinking back on it, I was going, "What the hell did he say that for?" How did that enter his head? Was this a thing that was in his mind going out onto the pitch? "I must give Joe Canning a yellow card today?" Even to say it as a joke seemed very odd to me.

A couple of years later, he sent me off in a league quarter-final against Waterford in Salthill. He gave me two yellow cards, the second of them in injury-time at the end of the game. I don't know if it was a thing that was in his head that I was a dirty player – I always played on the edge and went hard into tackles but I didn't think of myself as dirty. Whatever it was, Barry got to give his yellow card that day anyway.

Consistency

People always talk about looking for consistency from referees and of course that’s what everyone wants. But every referee has a different personality and that’s what makes finding consistency so difficult. Ideally, they’d all just be the same type of person, there to facilitate the playing of the game. But every one of them goes out onto the pitch with different goals, different styles, different ways of communicating. That’s just human nature.

If you watched the two Munster Championship games over the weekend, you saw it in action. On Saturday night in Limerick, Sean Stack was very strict on the throw ball. I think he called it five times in total. Move onto Sunday in Thurles and James Owens only called it once. Was there a noticeable difference in how many players were using a clear strike in their handpasses between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon? No. The only difference was the man with the whistle.

Most referees who get to do an All-Ireland semi-final know that they're not going to get the final. So they stop worrying about the assessor in the stand

So it's often pointless expecting consistency between different referees. The least you can hope for though is consistency from game to game by the same referee. The next game Sean Stack does, teams will have to be conscious of the handpass. The next game James Owens referees, full-backs will have to be careful about grabbing onto opposition players in the square.

I think everyone saw that the Clare penalty was technically correct on Sunday. But equally, I think everyone knows that the same thing happens half a dozen times in every game and is never called. Will Owens blow for a penalty the next time it happens? Maybe. Would that be blown for a penalty in an All-Ireland semi-final or final? I highly doubt it.

Everyone knows that the big games in the All-Ireland series are refereed differently to the games early in the season. This isn’t because referees get any better or worse, it’s because they feel a lot freer by the time the end of the year comes around. Referees are ambitious, just like anyone else. They want to be out there in the middle of the biggest matches. To do that, they have to impress the people above them, the assessors in the stand.

There was one year we played a league match against Westmeath and I was having a good tussle with my marker Aonghus Clarke. He got a yellow card early enough and then just before half-time, we were going for the ball and his hurley tipped off my helmet. It was a free, fair enough. And strictly speaking, it was probably a yellow card.

But he knew and I knew that there was no dirt in it. The referee came over and was reaching for his book and I went, “Ah no, I’m fine, I’m fine. There’s no need for a card.” But he produced the second yellow anyway and that was that.

After the game, the referee came over to me. “I had no choice, Joe. I know there wasn’t much in it but the assessor is up in the stand. If I don’t give the second yellow there, it will count against me when the next game comes up and I won’t get it.”

If you ever wonder why All-Ireland semi-finals and final are refereed differently, there’s your answer. Most referees who get to do an All-Ireland semi-final know that they’re not going to get the final. So they stop worrying about the assessor in the stand and they let stuff go that they would have been whistling for back in the league or the early rounds of the championship. It’s not going to matter one way or the other so why be fussy about it?

And in a funny kind of way, if a referee is in with a chance of getting the final, he still lets a lot of stuff go anyway. This is because he knows that the one sure way to blow his opportunity is to become the centre of attention. Staying on the right side of the assessor goes out the window – his one aim for the day is not to be mentioned on The Sunday Game that night.

When you throw all those factors into the mix, you can see why it’s so hard to get consistency across the board. Everybody would love to have it but human nature makes it very difficult. That’s why I think good communication is nearly more important. You can put up with referees changing from game to game when they explain their decisions in real time. They would get so much more respect that way.

One thing is for sure. Telling a minor hurler, “I don’t have to explain myself to you” isn’t helpful to anyone.