This is one thing that always drives me mad and I’ve been meaning to post about for ages - the standard of umpiring. A couple of recent clangers brought it back into my mind again. It happens equally in football and hurling and if they can’t tell if a football is wide or not what hope have they of telling if a sliothar is!

The umpires have some major tasks, check for scores and wides and 65’s, keep an eye on goalmouth action for square balls and the like and generally keep an eye on action behind the referee’s back. Why then are umpires not officially trained and sanctioned like the linesman who have very little to do except watch for side line balls which is a fairly easy task. Instead of the referee picking 4 mates of his to do the task we should have 4 fully qualified individuals.

They need good eyesight, be able to work together as a team of 2, and be linked up to the referee. Too often we see both umpires running behind the goals to check a point, complete indecision on 65’s and square balls, both umpires waving a different result etc.

In the Kilkenny Wexford game this year we had Wexford being adwarded a goal that was actually stopped on the goal line - but of course the umpires were back behind the goals so they have no hope of making a correct call from that position. Every club game you go to around the country you’ll see mistakes being made and with all county championships now eaching the deciding stages games get tight and tense and they sure don’t need umpires making a mess of things.

Given the amount of games that are close and the impact a blown umpires call can have it’s unbelieveable that the GAA have never treated this role seriously. Particularly so in hurling with the speed of the game and small size of the sliothar. It’s impossible for a referee to keep track of everything and he needs maximum support from a realiable team of umpires.

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