By John Harrington

Much will be said and written this week by former players about how the Mayo and Dublin footballers will or should prepare themselves mentally for Sunday’s All-Ireland Final.

It’s accepted that in a contest of fine margins, a vital edge can be gained or lost by what a player does or doesn’t do in these last few days before the biggest match of the year.

The players aren’t the only participants though who will tick every box they can think of in these last few days in order to peak on All-Ireland Final day.

The match officials, led by Senior Final referee Conor Lane and Minor Final referee Ciaran Branagan, are also preparing for the biggest match of their lives in a very focused frame of mind.

That was very apparent when they congregated in Box 658 in the Hogan Stand on Monday night for the GAA’s National Referee All-Ireland Finals seminar.

If you’ve ever been in a team-meeting the night before a major match, then you’ll have a good idea what the atmosphere in the room was like.

Chairman of the National Referees Development Body, Sean Walsh, got proceedings under way with a no-nonsense speech that reminded everyone just now vital their roles will be in Sunday’s All-Ireland Football Final.

“The point I want to really stress is that one weak link, one weak link next Sunday could bring it all down,” said Walsh. “Everyone in this room has a major role to play.

“The four umpires here are every bit as important as the ref. You know that yourself, you’re with them through all their big matches.

“The linesmen and the fourth official have to be tuned in too to your roles next Sunday. The day for coming here and sitting on side-line is over and well over.

“More importantly we want everyone from tonight on to be clued into the fact that everybody is here because the people they're with are the best at what they do. And you are here to help them. So get tuned in from tonight.”

If anyone wasn’t already tuned in, they certainly were after Walsh finished speaking and handed over proceedings to National Match Officials Manager, Patrick Doherty.

Doherty then directed everyone’s attention to a big-screen where he played a series of video clips from recent Championship matches that highlighted scenarios that may arise again in Sunday’s Final.

The first topic was aggressive fouling, and a number of recent incidents, many of them high-profile, were replayed.

The room was invited to give feedback on whether the correct refereeing decisions had been made at the time or not, with Conor Lane and Ciaran Branagan in particular encouraged to give their opinion.

A consensus was usually reached quickly, and at the end of every clip Doherty would underline why the referee in question had been correct to make the decision he had made, or, if he had erred, what the correct decision should have been.

Clips of a number of technical fouls and questionable calls were also run through, with the latter in particular making you realise that good refereeing can be as much about judgement calls as black and white decisions.

Next up was a run-through on the basics of good umpiring, with an emphasis on correct positioning in a variety of different scenarios.

The protocols of when and how to use Hawkeye were detailed, a discussion that ended with the slogan, ‘If in doubt, check it out. Better to call Hawkeye than have Hawkeye call you’, emblazoned on the big-screen.

Match regulations were then discussed, such as a reminder that the official runners for both teams could only enter the field during a break in play and between the ’45 and ’65 yard lines.

From the tenor of the talk, it was clear that managing this and enforcing the rule that water carriers cannot enter the field of play are two things that take a lot of watching for match-officials.

Then the All-Ireland Final day minute by minute schedule was run through in forensic detail. In case you didn’t know, President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, meets both Senior All-Ireland Final teams at precisely 3.18pm. No earlier, no later.

The meeting ended with all the umpires asked to try on their new All-Ireland Final day white jackets to make sure they fitted correctly. Nothing is left to chance.

Coming away from the meeting you were left with a new appreciation of the fact that when it comes to All-Ireland Final day, match officials need to be as well prepared and mentally tuned in as the players themselves.

“It's the same thing and what we’re doing tonight is we're just getting everything right,” Sean Walsh told GAA.ie after the seminar.

“Getting their minds focused and giving them a sense of the occasion.

“It's one of the biggest sporting days in the Irish sporting calendar and you want to make sure they're tuned in for that. And then you take them through their roles and the regulations. Just go through the whole basics of what the day is about.

“We have done this for the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, minors and seniors, this year and last year. And the big thing that we're stressing is that referees are not on their own.

“This is a team game and we're a team of officials and everyone has to be part of that team and there has to be no let up from the first minute to however long it takes. We're very, very strong on that all year.”

Most referees will tell you that a good day for them is when no-one mentions them after a match.

It deserves to be acknowledged though that there have been some excellent refereeing performances at the business end of both the hurling and football championship this year.

The bar has been set high for Conor Lane going into Sunday’s All-Ireland Football Final, because Brian Gavin gave such a flawless display of refereeing in the hurling final, albeit aided by two teams who played hard but very fair.

“You look at the All-Ireland semi-finals in both codes and the All-Ireland Hurtling Final, they have been absolutely excellent games and the referees in all of them have contributed immensely to them,” says Walsh.

“We're absolutely certain about that and I think most people would have to agree.

“Even the last day after the All-Ireland Hurling Final, when Brian Gavin the referee was congratulated afterwards, there was a round of applause from everyone in the room.

“That underlined the high standard of refereeing that took place in the hurling final and that's what we aim for every day that we go out. Not just the All-Ireland Final.

“I believe we will have a very, very good performance from all our officials next Sunday. I'm very, very confident of that.”

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