It’s seldom that the man in the middle has as carefree a day as Seán Hurson had in the All-Ireland senior football final.
Maybe it was on the cards. He had refereed the sides’ All-Ireland group game in Sligo last month so both knew what they were going to get from the Tyrone man.
In saying that, he could have predicted exactly what he was going to receive from them. It was cagey, it was slow, ridiculously so at times and with two teams not exactly forthcoming in contesting a whole lot of ball it made life easy for Hurson.
There really is no comparison between hurling and football officiating at the moment. One is a whirlwind, the other is a breeze. We’re all Gaels and we want to see both games progress but you would dearly hope the new Football Review Committee is going to put in place rules that ensure disappointing spectacles like this become rarer.
The only similarity between the two finals was both produced unusual stats. Last weekend, Clare were not awarded a single free in the second half of normal time. This weekend, Armagh didn’t score a single free. Perhaps there’s something that can be taken from those zero figures but that’s a story for another day.
Only one or two of Hurson’s calls you could dispute. Rian O’Neill was fortunate to earn a first-half free when he appeared to charge. In that first half, Hurson gave super advantage for a score for each team. A Galway attack that finished with a Céin Darcy point was allowed to continue despite John Maher being fouled in the 24th minute.
A Ben Crealey point also came courtesy of the referee deciding that it was in the interest of Armagh and the game not to call back the play for a free. In a bad football final, Hurson certainly couldn’t be blamed for adding to the disappointing display.
However, I would argue that the roving umpires again did Hurson no favours with their positioning at times leaving them in great difficulty. A couple of HawkEye calls were unnecessary but the umpire was in no man’s land and so had to rely on it. There’s positive uses of technology and then there is the needless.
The only yellow cards came towards the end of the game, one of them for the goalscorer Aaron McKay, and there couldn’t be any arguments.
I couldn’t help watching the game and thinking what might Jim Gavin’s committee’s rules do to change things. I’m very much in favour of teams having to keep three players inside their opponents’ 65m line at all times. Straight away, that stops the mass defensive blocks we see in games like this one.
I wouldn’t be so inclined to introduce the clock/hooter as it should be at the referee’s discretion to add on time as he sees fit. And I want to see how the two-point arc in tandem with the four-goal point goal works before I make any judgement.
Going back to the hurling final, some people were quick to make comments about my column on the basis of the headline alone. I wasn’t having a go at Johnny Murphy. It just so happened that the three contentious decisions he made were against the same team, which was unfortunate for him.
He played his part in a great final otherwise but in those crucial stages towards the end he was definitely injured. He had taken a bang on the head but also on the leg too and Liam Gordon should have replaced him before the end.
There are rumblings Cork may look to advance the TV match official argument, which I would support. When everyone at home knows it should have been a Cork 65 and those in the stadium who saw the replay on the big screens know it should have been a Cork 65, why shouldn’t the referee?
Surely in this day and age we should be empowering our referees to make the most accurate calls and I maintain it can be done with little interruption to the game. With a few words in the ear of the referee, a decision could be overturned without having to replay something on the side of the pitch or on one of the screens. It can be done quickly and discreetly. I am sure of it.
But I wonder just how much the GAA really want to help their officials. The investment being put into them is insufficient, the training and mentoring is insubstantial and I would ask GAA president Jarlath Burns to address the most maligned group in the sport.
Whether it’s at provincial or county level, it’s difficult not to believe that referees are at the bottom of the ladder. Meeting every three weeks and doing the odd video analysis for the sports especially one as demanding as hurling has become just isn’t going to cut it and the whole expenses area needs to be reviewed.