In his Sunday Independent column this morning, Joe Brolly addresses the GAA's chronic issue: a failure to respect the referee. The column follows the usual three-act structure of a Brolly column. First he identifies a particular problem within the GAA, he then highlights how it is manifest through a series of anecdotes, with the solution arriving in the third act.
The anecdotes in this morning's column were as entertaining as ever, and here is the pick of the bunch:
St Brigid's under 14s played a game a few years ago on an all-weather pitch on the Grosvenor Road. One of the opposing players was a big gangly lad. at one stage, the referee gave a free. The young lad squared up to him. The referee told him to back off.
At which point the 14 year old hit him on the nose, sending him staggering backwards.
Not for long.
The referee got stuck in. It was an amazing sight. A referee and a 14 year old fist fighting on a sunny afternoon in West Belfast.
Remarkable. It is reminiscent of a story from Uruguay, of how a young Luis Suarez showcased his infamous temper by headbutting a referee after he had sent him off. Wright Thompson wrote a fine piece for ESPN in 2014 where he travelled to Uruguay in a bid to learn more of this seminal moment, and found wide-scale omerta, in which witnesses either denied the incident took place or else justified it in absurd ways: one onlooker claimed that Suarez slipped and his forehead accidentally made contact with the referee's nose.
Thankfully such secrecy does not abound in Under 14s GAA. Brolly revealed that his club, St Brigid's, are trialling a respect campaign among themselves:
The basic idea is in training, we sin-bin the players for a criticism of the referee or coach or fellow player. In a match they are taken off altogether. We also speak to the parents about what is required of them at games and training sessions. The children have learned very quickly. They are no longer the problem.
It is the coaches and the parents who are struggling to comply.
You can read Brolly's column in full in today's Sunday Independent.
