There's not many referees, past or present, who can say that every minute of their time in black has been enjoyable and well worth living out. Former top-notch whistler from Carnaross, Aidan Gillic, says the business of refereeing was the best thing he ever did on the GAA front. Though he may have certain gripes about the way Gaelic football has evolved in recent years, Aidan Gillic is pleased to give the art of refereeing in his native Meath and elsewhere around the country an unqualified thumbs-up. Not that the Carnaross clubman would be the fiercest critic in the world of anything, never mind of the game he obviously loves with a passion. Indeed, even the shenanigans which marred his club's intermediate championship clash with Slane last September fails to knock him for six. You see, having been the 'fall-guy' himself for so many years, Aidan does have a deep insight into the pressures that football referees come under and he fully appreciates that just like players themselves, the man in black is fallible. Nevertheless, in his opinion, Carnaross "got a raw deal against Slane." Aidan strikes one as being the sort that is likely to stand shoulder to shoulder with his 'ilk. It is not surprising then that he is wont to talk up the standard of refereeing which is evident these days: "Overall, I think the standard of refereeing has improved a good bit over the years, especially when you consider how much more pressure there is on a referee and how much the rules and guidelines have changed. "I think taking some of the responsibilities off a referee's shoulders is a good thing which, for instance, means that the time-keeping isn't just his sole responsibility now during a match. It's a good idea to have an assistant alongside to put up his board to show everybody how much time is left to play. "For years more and more things were being asked of refs - they were being asked to take care of too many things themselves. Nowadays a lot of those responsibilities are being shared out among the linesmen and assistant referees." As someone who says a county final stint involving county town side O'Mahonys as the highlight of his career as a ref, Aidan is shown to be a hive of information about his own career and Meath football in general. For instance, he has vivid memories of his hour in charge of the Leinster first round championship clash between Kevin Heffernan's Dubs and Wexford in 1974. The game was played at Croke Park but Aidan is not egotistical enough to contend that he knew the metropolitans were about to go on that year and seize the Sam Maguire Cup and in the process kick-start one of the most magical periods in the history of Gaelic football. "I don't think anyone other than maybe fanatical Dublin fans could have thought that the game was going to be the first hurdle for the Dubs as they made their way to the All-Ireland. "As far as I remember, Jimmy Keaveney wasn't even in the squad then and he apparently watched the match from Hill 16. "That was the first year of the new rules too when the big square was introduced and as it happened, I awarded a penalty to Dublin and Bobby Doyle took it. The fact that Dublin went on and won the All-Ireland made it quite a year." By the time Aidan took charge of the Dublin/Wexford clash though, he was already an 'oul hand at the business of calling it as he saw it. It was in the mid-sixties that he first took up the whistle. And there was no question marks hanging over his sanity then either! "Some people might have thought I was mad to take up refereeing but I never saw it like that. When you get to referee a big match like that one between Dublin and Wexford in front of a packed crowd and a great atmosphere, you know that it's well worth all the hassle you might have gotten. "I had no qualms about taking up refereeing anyway. It never annoyed me what people thought of the job I did with the whistle." But what were the circumstances which led to him to decide to take up refereeing? "I was clipping the hedge one day when the late Fr. Tully pulled up and said he was stuck for a referee to look after a game involving Cortown in Carnaross. He reckoned I had a good broad knowledge of the rules and that having played the game myself, I'd know enough about football to be able to referee a match between a couple of juvenile teams. "Fr. Tully was the chairman of the county board at that time and a well respected figure in Carnaross so I decided to oblige him and give it a go that day. After that, I just decided that I'd keep it up for as long as I could." Having been forced to quit playing himself at the tender age of 20, Aidan took to the refereeing game like the proverbial duck. Refereeing was some consolation. "I hurt my knee one year and it didn't get better too quickly so I looked about it and it turned out to be a cruciate ligament injury although it wasn't really heard of much in those days. That was the end of my playing days." And so began an illustrious refereeing career which saw Aidan officiate far and wide to the point where was once rated as one of the best in Leinster. In time, the born and reared Dulane man came to referee every final at every grade in Meath, bar one, i.e. intermediate championship. "I refereed every final from under 12 upwards but I missed out on the intermediate through my own fault. I had been asked to take charge of the intermediate final - between Moylagh and Bohermeen I think - one year but I decided instead to travel somewhere or other to take charge of an O'Byrne Cup match. "Looking back on that time, I was sorry that I didn't stay put in my own county because I would have liked to have refereed all the local finals." For the duration of his refereeing career, Aidan relied on his own common sense and his own discretion when handling even the most relaxed and docile of encounters. In this respect, he's proud of the fact that over the course of his entire career, he only sent off "one or two" players altogether. An admirer way back yonder of such reputable whistlers as Meath's own Richie Barry and Paddy Kavanagh, Aidan also felt that others such as Paul Kelly of Dublin, Fintan Tierney of Cavan and John Moloney from Tipperary were top notch officials too. So what had these fellas got going for themselves or what attributes does anybody need to possess in order to be a competent ref? "I'd say common sense is a big thing. I'd also say that it helps a lot if the ref is someone who has played the game. Players need to respect the ref and it helps the ref's case if they know that he played the game himself and can see the game from a player's perspective. "Overall though, as long as a ref knows the rules, is fit and does the job as fairly as he possibly can, he should gain the respect of the players and do well at the refereeing." Interestingly even allowing for the way the rules of Gaelic football have evolved since Aidan hung up his whistle, the Carnaross clubman says he wouldn't mind refereeing in the current climate. He has some reservations though about the way things are managed and organised: "I don't like the idea of the red and yellow cards and I don't like the way so many refs have to go by the directions of different committees in terms of how they're supposed to referee a match. "In my time, if you made a mistake, you kept on refereeing and tried to make that one your last one. Players make mistakes and so can refs but referees can learn from their mistakes too - they don't need all sorts of people on committees telling them what they have to do next time out." Aidan insists that he had a great time refereeing. He made a lot of friends, some of whom he still bumps into at various occasions, funerals mostly unfortunately. He refereed his last match in the mid-seventies and apart from all the good memories he has from his days as the man in the middle, he has also fond memories of his time with Kells Harps and the county minors (1958). "I enjoyed every minute of the football I played even though I didn't play for as long as I would have liked because of my knee injury. Refereeing wasn't a bad second best though," Aidan concludes. Tweet

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