There will be two new faces for football fans to get used to this summer after Kildare whistler Brendan Cawley joined the 2019 GAA Football Championship's Referee Panel alongside Galway man James Molloy.
Their inclusion, in place of Armagh's Padraig Hughes and Meath's Cormac Reilly, was confirmed when the Association's Referee Development Committee posted the final list of officials that will oversee matches up and down the country over both football and hurling codes this evening.
Newbridge native Cawley has made his way on to the Championship select after impressing in big gigs over recent years including the 2018 Intermediate Club Final between Moy Tír na nÓg and Michael Glaveys last February as well being a regular fixture in Leinster football's pre-season curtain-raiser the O'Byrne Cup. More recently, he refereed the National League Division Four finale between Derry and Leitrim.
It's been a similar rise to prominence for Salthill / Knocknacarra club man Molloy, who also has been heavily involved in looking after league encounters over the past couple of seasons as well as fixtures in the FBD League out west.
Crossmaglen arbitrator Hughes and O'Reilly from the St Mary's club in Donore have been two of the game's more recognisable figures in recent years and have enjoyed distinguished careers in the thick of Championship action if at times courting controversy.
Cork County Board apologised to Hughes after initially releasing a statement lambasting a decision he made when the Rebels lost to Kerry in the Munster SFC final in 2015, whilst Reilly drew criticism in 2014 from Mayo fans after their All-Ireland semi-final replay defeat to the Kingdom.
Across the top two tiers of All-Ireland hurling, 14 referees will supervise matches in both the Liam McCarthy and Joe McDonagh Cup competitions - an increase of four from 2018.
Colum Cunning (Antrim), Liam Ward (Galway) and Cathal McAllister (Cork) are three of the new editions to this year's panel and will be joined Clareman Rory McGann, Patrick Murphy from Carlow and Tipperary's Johnny Ryan in making their bows.
