Replying To cavanman47: "Just after seeing this pop up on the main page - Eugene McGee wants referees to be made full-time and paid.
What do people think??
I think the standard of refereeing this year has been the worse in a long long time.
He mentions 12 elite referees - are there 12 elite referees, there are 2 or maybe 3 (Deegan, Coldrick and at a push Kinsella IMO)"
They get expenses already and I'm sure they get to max it out plenty. Maybe they should get paid cos their professionalism might rise up to the required level. Those 3 are nothing to right home about in fairness. Gough should be in there.
How can you justify playing referees and not paying players ? If a referee takes a five year work sabbatical how can you drop him from the elite panel if his performances are not up to scratch ? Does Eugene McGee propose keeping an elite panel in place and leaving it unchanged for at least three years ?
Replying To seanie_boy: "They get expenses already and I'm sure they get to max it out plenty. Maybe they should get paid cos their professionalism might rise up to the required level. Those 3 are nothing to right home about in fairness. Gough should be in there."
I don't agree on Gough but there are far worse. You're right, they ain't anything to write home about but they are probably the most balanced and they let games flow (tho like I said, this has been a bad year for just about every official).
But you'd be really really stretching it to justify paying the 10th, 11th or 12th best current inter-county referee
Just after seeing this pop up on the main page - Eugene McGee wants referees to be made full-time and paid. What do people think?? I think the standard of refereeing this year has been the worse in a long long time. He mentions 12 elite referees - are there 12 elite referees, there are 2 or maybe 3 (Deegan, Coldrick and at a push Kinsella IMO) cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts:1585 - 19/07/2016 15:18:35How exactly do you define elite? Fully professional referees would be great but what other than refereeing games would these do if they were to turn pro? They can only do 2/3 games a week. What else would they do? Would you have them as ref development officers and have them oversee other referees. Assess them, help train new and younger referees?
They get expenses already and I'm sure they get to max it out plenty. Maybe they should get paid cos their professionalism might rise up to the required level. Those 3 are nothing to right home about in fairness. Gough should be in there. seanie_boy (Tyrone) - Posts:3595 - 19/07/2016 16:13:27When you say "max it out plenty" how so? What exactly is the required level anyway?
what do you do about linesmen and umpires then? No point having a professional referee with his drinking buddy as an umpire. bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts:1338 - 19/07/2016 16:30:31What would you do about umpires? Do you make it as higher levels of game umpires are qualified officials and can call fouls etc or hwat exactly?
How can you justify playing referees and not paying players? If a referee takes a five year work sabbatical how can you drop him from the elite panel if his performances are not up to scratch? Does Eugene McGee propose keeping an elite panel in place and leaving it unchanged for at least three years? Greengrass (Louth) - Posts:4358 - 19/07/2016 16:50:51One doesn't justify the other. You don't allow those taking up a pro ref job to take a sabbatical from another position or you set it up so that they cant do that. You don't strictly have pro referees but referee development officers responsible for training and developing referees within a specific area and these development officers are simply referees at the top of the game. These development officers as well as refereeing their own games, help coach and train new and old referees alike at under 12/14/16 as well as junior b/c referees. They keep their job as long as they are helping develop new referees and if they stop refereeing at the top level for whatever reason then so be it.