I am getting sick & tired of reading every Tom, Dick & Harry on the national airwaves & in the Monday papers complaining about refereeing/linesmen/umpiring decisions. I firmly believe now that its their way of getting their voice heard on a national stage.

A couple of instances jump out from this year.

Tyrone's Mattie Donnelly in the Ulster Final - Clear Black Card, didn't make an honest attempt for the ball, barely lifted off the ground, clearly just let his momentum run into McHugh, and don't come back at me saying "he was in the air." He landed before clattering McHugh.

Tipperary's Robbie Kiely in the All-Ireland Semi-Final. Clear Black Card, took the man out of the game when baring down on goal. It is totally irrelevant if its in the first minute or the last minute of the game.

How RTÉ can justify that Tom Carr should be on the airwaves is beyond me. He, like everyone else, is fully entitled to his opinion, but the problem is nobody else cares about his opinion. Some of the garbage he has come out with over the year has been utter tripe. He has yet to say a good thing to say about a referee, and you'd think he wrote the rulebook the way he carries on.

xxB3B0Stunnahxx (USA) - Posts: 94 - 22/08/2016 20:28:49    1904627

Agree Tommy Carr not good at the commentary at all.
for me I don't think the co commentator is needed, they just rabbit on mcstay and Carney were the same.
Only commentary I like is on the radio as you can't see the game.
It be great if they gave the option of watching the game with no commentary and just the stadium atmosphere.
As for ex players and pundits I see John o Mahoney has to bring Dublin into yesterday's sending off in croker saying if it was James McCarthy or cian o Sullivan they wouldn't have got that red card, very childish stuff altogether

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 22/08/2016 20:48:34    1904631

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4222 - 22/08/2016 20:51:59    1904633

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7344 - 22/08/2016 21:05:12    1904640

urhavinalaugh (Carlow) - Posts: 73 - 22/08/2016 21:07:49    1904642

SamOnErrigal (Donegal) - Posts: 1427 - 22/08/2016 21:13:58    1904645

I'm sure there were many more than that.

most of them could stand to lose a few kilo to keep up to the modern intercounty game and pace

bobobo (Clare) - Posts: 20 - 22/08/2016 21:13:59    1904646

It's funny when supporters can see mistakes made by refs but the media don't mention it but when one of the media goes on a rant the story drags on and on, it was said before this game that the ref wasn't great but the powers that be put him in charge and they got exactly what we expected, a poor enough performance, black card for Tipp was wrong, yellow was enough but then ref decided to follow that up by handing out a fair few soft frees

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 22/08/2016 22:44:27    1904680

The word always used is 'consistent'.

Someone define this word for me please because the players who use it are never consistent in their play and the pundits who use it consistently argue over decisions amongst each other.

Blaming officials is the way to offset blame by a team for defeat and for the media to sell content.

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 23/08/2016 07:56:40    1904719

How about you consider it from a players perspective. You train up to 5 times a week out in all sorts of weather, missing fsmiky time and nights out and you get sent off due to a wrong call or you do the same challenge that another player got a yellow for. It's ridiculous.

If you play the mattie incident at normal speed it's clear there is no way in hell he can get out of the way. As a result he missed the biggest game of the year for him.

All of these are easily cleared up with a TMO. If you had 3 refs in a room there would be 3 different interpretations of the rules.

kevin03 (Tyrone) - Posts: 276 - 23/08/2016 10:15:10    1904760

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 23/08/2016 10:30:22    1904768

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4222 - 23/08/2016 11:46:32    1904811

Match officials generally to a decent job in very difficult conditions.

The amount of criticism they receive is crazy.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 23/08/2016 12:51:44    1904832

kevin03 (Tyrone) - Posts: 276 - 23/08/2016 13:17:35    1904843

How about you consider it from a players perspective. You train up to 5 times a week out in all sorts of weather, missing fsmiky time and nights out and you get sent off due to a wrong call or you do the same challenge that another player got a yellow for. It's ridiculous.
If you play the mattie incident at normal speed it's clear there is no way in hell he can get out of the way. As a result he missed the biggest game of the year for him.
All of these are easily cleared up with a TMO. If you had 3 refs in a room there would be 3 different interpretations of the rules.
kevin03 (Tyrone) - Posts:122 - 23/08/2016 10:15:10Issues are not at all easily cleared up with a TMO as the rules are still not good enough.
It could also be said teams train up to 5 times a week in all sorts of weather but lose because forwards cant do the basic things right like put easy shots over the bar. A referee has one chance to see a situation and decide upon it. A TMO isn't simply the answer and more work needs to be done with how referees are treated.
Referees train, work on the rules of game regularly etc
You think refs don't train? Just turn up all causal to ruin inter-county games???
No TMO is not the solution. Its not rugby where you have stoppages every minute and people can have a long chat about things. TMO would kill the games if we stopped for every card incident etc. We want on one hand free flowing games and then on the other hand stop things.
As to the Mattie incident I have heard people both agree and disagree with the Black card handed out. Therefore I give the benefit of the doubt to a ref who sees it real time in context of a match game, not via a vine on twitter.
Remember in 90% of the cases people are divided on wether the ref was right or wrong.
witnof (Dublin) - Posts:977 - 23/08/2016 10:30:22Rugby doesn't have stoppages every minute and TMO wouldn't kill games as it wouldn't be used for every incident.

Match officials generally to a decent job in very difficult conditions.
The amount of criticism they receive is crazy.
MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts:9878 - 23/08/2016 12:51:44 How do you change this though?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 23/08/2016 13:21:02    1904847

I'd like to see a video referee introduced, have seen to many poor decisions over the years that could easily be solved , Joe sheridans "try" comes to mind

Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 1908 - 23/08/2016 13:30:48    1904855

Even a good ref will make 5 errors out of 100 in a game, so refs and linesmen are generally ok. But umpires are a joke, they think if the ball is in the net it is a goal no matter what. no need for examples surely.

suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1669 - 23/08/2016 14:00:03    1904867

Ormond and Kevin03 are you having a laugh that there are not many stoppages in rugby and the TMO is not used very often???

One of the big debates in rugby is are refs over using it? Is the slow-mo making things look worse etc.

Ormond between, scrums, line outs, penalty kicks there are not many stoppages in rugby???? Rugby is heading to nearly 2 hours in total from the actual start of a game to the finish.

TMO is not the solution because we presume because pundits or one team complains the ref is wrong we have a controversy.

Also remember even TMO, or instant replays are still leaving big questions over whether the decision was right or wrong. And look how long they take to go through all the angles etc. There is even people arguing in rugby there should be no slo-mo as it makes things look worse.

I think in general standards are better than before. If you disagree and still want a TMO then answer the following:

We have a TMO incident in the Dongeal v Dublin game. We go to the TMO. Should Michael Murphy have been yellow carded or red carded?? If you had poll you would probably find a 50/50 split. I thought was red straight away but accept the ref gave a yellow. No controversy.

Or the red card Strauss got in the first Ireland v SA test, most Irish said it was yellow.

So TMO is not this fool proof be all to end all solution people make out.

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 23/08/2016 14:34:56    1904891

Ormond and Kevin03 are you having a laugh that there are not many stoppages in rugby and the TMO is not used very often???
One of the big debates in rugby is are refs over using it? Is the slow-mo making things look worse etc.
Ormond between, scrums, line outs, penalty kicks there are not many stoppages in rugby???? Rugby is heading to nearly 2 hours in total from the actual start of a game to the finish.
TMO is not the solution because we presume because pundits or one team complains the ref is wrong we have a controversy.
Also remember even TMO, or instant replays are still leaving big questions over whether the decision was right or wrong. And look how long they take to go through all the angles etc. There is even people arguing in rugby there should be no slo-mo as it makes things look worse.
I think in general standards are better than before. If you disagree and still want a TMO then answer the following:
We have a TMO incident in the Dongeal v Dublin game. We go to the TMO. Should Michael Murphy have been yellow carded or red carded?? If you had poll you would probably find a 50/50 split. I thought was red straight away but accept the ref gave a yellow. No controversy.
Or the red card Strauss got in the first Ireland v SA test, most Irish said it was yellow.
So TMO is not this fool proof be all to end all solution people make out.
witnof (Dublin) - Posts:979 - 23/08/2016 14:34:56 Id still prefer a longer game where more decisions are got right in game than what happens in GAA.
video replays improve the decision making process. Faster isn't always better. Scrums, lineouts are not stoppages in rugby. They are active parts of the game.
Nobody is saying a Television match official is a fool proof be all end all solution just that it would be an improvement on what is the current situation.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 23/08/2016 15:44:28    1904931

cityman73 (Limerick) - Posts: 775 - 23/08/2016 16:46:57    1904965