A VIDEO shared widely on WhatsApp last week showed a referee in Roscommon left sprawled on the ground as the mentor of an under 17 team walked away from him. The clear implication was that the referee had been seriously assaulted, and the incident led to a referee’s strike in the county last weekend, meaning all games there had to be cancelled, showing the importance of the oft-maligned referees. Lack of appreciation of referees is hardly a Roscommon problem exclusively, and there is no doubt that referees across Clare face a great deal of stick too, even if it very rarely goes as far as it did there. Newmarket’s Seanie McMahon is referee administrator with Clare GAA and was a prominent referee at the highest level for many years. He says that people expect far more from referees than they do from anyone else involved in sport. “Referees are going to make mistakes, like players do and managers do, during …
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