Kerry great Darragh Ó Sé has jumped to the defence of referees in the wake of last Sunday's ill-tempered All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

Writing in his weekly column in The Irish Times today, Ó Sé highlighted the thankless existence of being a gaelic football referee these days.

"Watching Dublin versus Mayo on Sunday, I was trying to think was there any worse job in the world than being a referee. I couldn't come up with one. I'd say Joe McQuillan needed to go and lie down in a dark room after it.

"We're killing these referees, plain and simple. First off, we're giving them an impossible job to do because nobody else will do it. Then we're watching them like hawks the whole time, mad to get picking up on any mistake. And if all that wasn't bad enough, we're lambasting them at every turn when the game is over.

"Honestly, can you think of another group of people that the association is as happy to hang out to dry as referees? Players try to hoodwink them. Managers plámás them beforehand to try to get an advantage and blackguard them then in the press afterwards when it doesn't go their way."

He continues: "How would you referee a game like that last Sunday? Where would you start? I heard people giving out afterwards about McQuillan missing a double hop in the lead-up to a point from Kevin McManamon. A double hop! That's like missing a pickpocket in the middle of a full-scale riot.

"You can argue away about the two penalties if you like. But does that not just prove the point of what a ridiculous standard we're expecting from these guys?

"The Sunday Game lads had six or seven hours to go through tapes in slow motion after the match and I still don't think they proved the case for or against in either incident. And yet we're giving Joe McQuillan a hosing because he did the only thing we can reasonably ask for - make a snap decision using his best judgment in real time."

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