By John Harrington

With his gear-bag slung over his shoulder, Johnny Ryan was the very picture of a man content with life as he sauntered out of the GAA’s National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown, singing a song.

There would have been little chance of getting a tune out of him a couple of hours earlier when he arrived along with all the other inter-county hurling and football referees for their annual pre-League fitness test.

The scenario they were faced with was a black and white one. Pass the fitness test and they would be eligible to referee in the Allianz Leagues. Fail it, and they wouldn’t.

“For the referees it's a challenge, it's a tough test, they know what's in front of them, but at the same time there would be a little niggle about making sure they get over the line,” said National Referees’ Development Committee Chairman, Willie Barrett.

“Because if you don't then you're not going to be refereeing in the National League, certainly in the earlier rounds.

“We'll review it if anyone doesn't come through it tonight, but you're not considered for the first four rounds of the National Hurling and Football Leagues if you don't pass it tonight so you'll be missing out on a good bit.

“The pressure is on. They'll all tell you that. When their time comes there'll be a fair bit of preparation done out there in terms of warming up and that to make sure they're right.”

The fitness of the referees is tested using a beep test, also know as a Yo-Yo test, which requires them to complete 20-metre shuttle runs within set intervals of time.

As the test proceeds, the interval between each successive beep decreases, forcing the referees to increase their speed over the course of the test until they fail to keep in sync with the beeps.

For the referees to pass the test they must score at least 16.8, which is a guaranteed lung-burner.

“It was tough as usual, it's getting tougher every year,” said 2017 All-Ireland SHC Final referee, Fergal Horgan after passing the test.

“The levels of fitness have gone through the roof really in the last couple of years in the GAA. The GAA players are so fit now that there's a big onus on the referees to keep up with the play.

“Referees are definitely getting fitter and fitter. When this started off around 10 years ago the level of fitness was only around 14.5 and now it's gone to 17.4 for the Championship so that's about 20 extra 40 metre runs so that will tell you that's 800 metres in the same length of time. So it's a very high standard of fitness now.”

By now the panel of inter-county referees are very familiar with the surroundings of the National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown.

Not only is it where they are fitness tested ahead of the Allianz Leagues and All-Ireland Championships, they also meet there together regularly to work on their fitness.

“They come here as a group to the National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown under the leadership of Aidan Brady who's a PhD student in DCU,” said National Match Officials Manager, Patrick Doherty.

“A number of the guys train together in the provinces as well. They come together here in Abbotstown usually a couple of times in the winter and then pretty regularly during the summer, every three or four weeks during the summer, and do fitness training sessions.

“And also, which is really key for them, they come together in the provinces on a weekly basis over the winter.

“The referees have worked very hard over the winter, they're fit, they're strong, and they're all getting to the level that we're asking of them this evening and some of them are getting considerably beyond it so we're very pleased with their level.”