Leading referee David Coldrick says the ‘Give Respect, Get Respect’ initiative needs more teeth.
All-Ireland final official Coldrick believes the Association have to look at wider sanctions for clubs, and not just individual members who abuse referees.
The Meath whistler knows of instances where adults paid their own fines and were back at games the following week when they were supposed to be suspended.
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Coldrick says clubs have to pay the penalty too and he is particularly concerned with the effect of verbal abuse on young referees:
“I think in some ways, it’s easy to have ‘Give Respect, Get Respect’ on your shoulder,” said the Blackhall Gaels club
man.
“Okay, that’s all you just need — to see it there. But I do think that the sanctions piece — I think that there are certain rules in the rulebook, that certainly at juvenile level we can tweak.
“Let’s say particularly at juvenile level that would actually help the young referees coming up.
“The guys that are actually within that two to three years zone of, ‘Am I going to keep this going? Or actually, there’s plenty of other stuff that I can do with less
hassle.’
“I think that’s the kind of the teeth bit that may have been missing from the initiative that is with us at the moment.”
Coldrick continued: “At juvenile level, in order to bring that responsibility back on the team and the club, if a referee is being verbally abused, say from the sideline by a mentor or a team official, okay the first time is a warning.
“Which is, let’s say your yellow card, but the second is not just getting rid of him.
“But also saying, ‘Look, well, I gave you a warning, so now it’s actually a penalty to the opposition team that I’m going to reward on the back of your abuse.’
“It means then that maybe the team and the collective club will actually sit up and take a bit more notice, in terms of that abuse that’s been directed at referees.”
Coldrick is well used to being in the eye of the storm at national level.
He was in charge of this year’s Galway/Armagh All-Ireland final when a major melee broke out at the end of normal time.
“I think again, at national level, we’ve all experienced that kind of thing,” he says.
“The Galway-Armagh quarter-final, that game obviously had it all. It had the good, the bad and the ugly.
“You don’t just switch off. You don’t.
“You do have the day job on the Monday, but it actually is always in your head for a couple of days afterwards. For me, I’m not on social media.
“Others (referees) obviously are and that’s absolutely fine.
“I think maybe there is stuff that I’d say from a support and education perspective that referees can do to insulate themselves?
“I know it’s not easy, kind of social media wise.
“The mental piece is something that has probably become a bigger thing over the last
number of years, probably with the increased attention.
“But we (inter-county referees) do have some supports in place. Let’s say in terms of a psychologist that’s helping us at national level.
“So bringing that forward and developing it would be important as well, because well being is obviously important right across society now.”
Coldrick says there is no silver bullet to fix the widespread verbal and physical abuse of referees, but he is hopeful the GAA’s latest review will lead to change.
“It is important that referees are involved in that review, which is the intention,” he says.
“So I would be hopeful, but we do need to take small steps. And hopefully the small steps will start making a difference.”
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