GAA referees are fit for purpose
Working in tandem with Professor Niall Moyna and the Sports Science Department in DCU, the GAA has developed a sophisticated programme that has improved the fitness of inter-county referees through rigorous training and testing - GAA.ie hears from National Match Officials Manager Pat Doherty, Niall Moyna (Health and Human Performance Professor DCU) and inter-county referees including Barry Kelly (Westmeath), David Gough (Meath), Martin McNally (Monaghan) and David Hughes (Carlow). For more, read a special feature on the training GAA referees undergo here http://www.gaa.ie/news/gaa-referees-are-fit-for-purpose/
By John Harrington
It’s a cold December night at the GAA’s National Games Development Centre in Abbottstown, and the frigid air is doing little to balm my burning lungs.
I’ve joined over 80 inter-county referees from the GAA’s national hurling and football panels to experience first-hand the fitness levels that are now required of our elite match officials.
It’s an area that the GAA have put a lot of focus on in recent years for an obvious reason – inter-county teams have become fitter, faster, and stronger, so referees are also obliged to do so if they are to keep pace with the speed of the game.
Working in tandem with Professor Niall Moyna and the Sports Science Department in DCU, the GAA has developed a sophisticated programme that improved the fitness of inter-county referees through rigorous training and testing.
Professor Moyna conducts regular fitness sessions at the national Games Development Centre, and referees must then pass stringent fitness tests in January and then May if they want to qualify for the League and Championship referees’ panels.
Referees
This year, inter-county referees wore a GPS device that monitored the distances and speeds they ran over the course of the matches they refereed, and the data collated is now being used to further refine the fitness programmes already in place.
“It's like everything else, the science had moved on, and now a lot of the teams, particularly the Ulster teams, were now starting to use science in their preparation of their teams,” Professor Moyna told GAA.ie.
“The teams are just getting fitter and the day of the referee taking a winter off and turning back on again in March and April again was long-gone. The GAA realised that because of the fitness level of the players had moved on so much that something had to be done.
“So basically we started from scratch. We didn't have any fitness base, we didn't know what the standards should be.
“And what we didn't want to do was use rugby or soccer data. So for the first few years we collected data on inter-county referees and based on the accumulated data over the first one or two years we then developed standardised norms.
“Since then there has been criteria, but the criteria has been based on GAA referees and these are minimum criteria you should be able to meet if you want to referee at inter-county level that we have been setting over the last few years.”
The recent training session in Abbottstown was clearly designed to mimic the high-intensity demands of refereeing an end-to-end championship match.
We were all put through a series of punishing shuttle-run sprints that tested our speed off the mark and powers of recovery.
Referees
The GPS data that Moyna collated after this year’s inter-county matches showed that referees are required to sprint at speeds of over 18kmh for around 10 per cent of the match, which was roughly double what he expected it would be.
So even though a referee’s average speed over the course of a match might be a relatively moderate 7.4kmh, they need to have the ability to put on the after-burners at regular intervals.
The demanding December shuttle-run session also served as a timely reminder for referees that they have seven weeks to get themselves into shape for the punishing beep-test they must pass in order to be eligible for the League and Championship panels.
A score of 16.8 or better is the minimum requirement for the League panel, and this then rises to 17.4 for the Championship panel.
Four-time All-Ireland hurling final referee Barry Kelly has officiated at inter-county level for 19 years now, and believes the fitness levels expected of match officials is rising all the time.
“I wasn't here on the first of December, 1999, I can guarantee you that”, says Kelly.
“It's amazing the way football and hurling have gotten fitter and faster and we've had to keep up.
“We've gotten a lot more scientific in how we train. Previously you'd have to do seven and a half laps or a 3,000 metre run or thereabouts in 15 and a half minutes.
“Now there's beep-tests and sprints. I suppose it reflects the way inter-county teams are gone. There are very few inter-county teams doing laps and laps.
“Now it's all about sprints and science and ladders and you name it. So, yeah, there have been big changes alright.
“That beep test we do is unforgiving because it's an exact science. You either get it or you don't. If you don't get it, then that's it. So it's not easy.
“I know myself I have a bit of work to do over the next six or seven weeks and so have lots of other lads.”
Hurling referee Brian Gavin.
The beauty of the GPS data that is now accessible to referees is that they know exactly where they rank athletically compared to their peers.
Not only are they given their own scores in terms of speeds and distances run, they’re also given the average score of the entire inter-county panel of referees.
So if you’re not hitting the sorts of targets you should be, it’s very quickly self-evident.
“Ah yeah, it's all gone very scientific, but that's the way it has to be," says Kelly. "We're going to get criticised anyway but we can't get criticised too much for fitness. And you won't hear that much, actually.
“There would have been comments in the past about referees not being fit, but that's the one thing that's not thrown at us anymore. Okay, everything else is, but fitness is one thing we're very strong. Consistency I suppose is the next thing to try and get right.”
When the referees were presented with their accumulated 2016 GPS data on a print-out for the very first time after the Abbottstown training session there were a lot of craning necks in the room as the curious checked how they compared to their peers around them.
The friendly rivalry was already evident during the training session itself as most taking part looked left and right towards the end of every shuttle-run to see where they were placed in the pecking order, and some burst from the blocks before Professor Moyna blew his whistle such was their determination to be near the head of the pack.
That’s no surprise really, because as Gaelic Football referee Martin McNally freely admits, they’re all effectively in competition with one another.
“There's League and Championship panels for referees and there’s competition for places on them,” says McNally. “When you have a panel of 30 players looking for 15 spots on the starting team there's competition, and it's the same out here for us.
“When you have that competition you're going to demand high standards. Guys are chomping at the bit to get into different panels, the same way they would be if they were playing for a team.
“So the standard is constantly being raised and that's what I've seen for the last four years on the panel. Every year the bar is getting higher and higher.”
Referees are keenly aware that the stakes are high every time they walk out to the middle of a pitch with a whistle around their neck.
Referees
If they make a mistake at a key moment, then not only could they potentially cost a group of players a massive opportunity, their own ambition of refereeing the biggest matches of all could be sunk too.
David Gough ran almost 11 kilometres when he refereed this year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Dublin and Kerry, and so knows better than most that an elite level of fitness is now a prerequisite at the highest level of refereeing if you want to be capable of getting those crucial decisions right.
“Absolutely,” says Gough. “And with the new additional time the games are lasting longer than they normally would. The All-Ireland semi-final last year was 79 minutes in total which is a full nine minutes longer than what we'd normally have in the past.
“You really have to be able to stay with the play for that length of time.
“We're there to make sure the game is refereed fairly. We have to keep up to the pace of the play. We have to get into the best position to make the correct calls. And to do that we need to be as fit as possible.
“We realise that those players have trained hard throughout the year and calls we've made could jeopardise their championship future. So we need to be in the best positions at all stages for the whole of the game.
“Any referee who starts off at the start of the year wants to referee an All-Ireland Final.
“That means performing at the highest level he can throughout the whole year. One mistake could cost you a place in a quarter-final, semi-final, or final.
“So our main goal is to referee that All-Ireland Final and that means we have to be as fit as we can through the whole year.”
Professor Niall Moyna is keen to make the point that the use of GPS data is something referees can use as a self-improvement ‘tool’, and that physical fitness is just one of the core attributes they must have in their locker.
Referees
Good judgement remains the most important trait a referee must possess, but surely it makes sense that the physically fitter a referee is the more mentally capable he is of making the correct calls in the dying minutes of a draining championship match?
“That's the million dollar question,” says Moyna. “You could be the fittest referee in the world, but if you can't make those decisions and make them under pressure...that's a very important point, that fitness is only one component.
“Now, obviously, when people are less fatigued it's more likely that they won't make as many mistakes. They'll be more alert.
“But at the end of the day it's about decision-making and it's very important we don't get carried away and that fitness becomes the be all and end all of everything. It's one part of the armamentarium that a referee has to have.
“But I think the most important thing is that they're able to referee, understand the rules, make good decisions, and interact with players.”