Four-time All-Ireland football final referee David Coldrick says he would like to see separation between county and club first next year before the vast majority of referees are exposed to the new rules that are expected to make it past Special Congress tomorrow.
Coldrick was expressing a personal view in the belief that what is passed and applied at inter-county level will require some tweaking anyway.
“They may not all be completely fit for purpose,” said Coldrick. “Even for that reason, it would be better to defer the club application for 12 months until those tweaks are dealt with.”
“Give the national guys 12 months that would then feed into any subsequent training and development of the club referees.
“There is a big education challenge coming here, but this year, if you have it right across the board, the national guys are getting themselves up to speed and need education themselves, and then at the same time, the club guys are coming along afterwards. It’s a much bigger implementation if it is everybody right from the start.”
Naturally, he envisages the implementation of the ‘3 v 3’ rule as being most problematic at club level as well as just the sheer volume of change.
“I do have certain reservations; all the rule changes proposed are very good in their own right and I can see where the FRC (Football Rules Committee) are coming from. But from a refereeing perspective, there are quite a lot of them. It’s not just the seven core enhancements, it’s what’s underneath each of the seven and it’s getting up to speed with the full gamut.”
Momentum appears to be behind Special Congress approving changes for all levels in 2025. Counties would have until March 31 to introduce change into club competitions in that scenario.
The vast majority appear to be supportive of most of the proposals, but counties like Longford, Leitrim and Sligo have reservations about club-level applications. More reservations may surface on the floor of Special Congress.
There has also been some small resistance to the dissent rule changes being proposed with the movement forward of a free by 50 metres.
“As a referee, I can’t imagine why you would not like to see that. This is a long time coming from a refereeing perspective; personal view, this is the best set of rule changes around dissent that there have ever been.
“This will certainly help alleviate some of those issues and we do have a refereeing crisis coming in most counties, so this is something that is absolutely needed and necessary.”
Coldrick has expressed satisfaction with the level of consultation he had, something fellow referee David Gough raised in a recent RTÉ interview, where he outlined that the national panel only had one consultation last May with the FRC.
Coldrick said that because of his involvement in ‘sandbox’ games and the interprovincial series, personally, he had plenty of exposure and engagement.
The Meath official said he was “open-minded” about what lies ahead in 2025 but expects change along the way.