Top Westmeath referee, James McGrath was controversially overlooked for any part in next Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final between Galway and Limerick, despite a near flawless season on the whistle. It has led to 41-year-old McGrath announcing his decision to retire from inter county refereeing nine years ahead of the cut-off time.
Speaking on being totally overlooked for any role in next Sunday’s final, McGrath described it as a “mind-boggling” decision by the GAA’s Central Referees Appointments Committee (CRAC) and he clearly feels there was an agenda against him. He expressed his disappointment at the lack of communication from CRAC in relation to the appointment of match officials for Sunday’s All-Ireland final. Many have suggested that McGrath was snubbed because of his handling of the Limerick versus Kilkenny All-Ireland quarter-final.
“I know this happens from time to time. I have been a manager over teams as well and I have worked with managers over county teams and I deal with Danny Owens over Westmeath minors, but the biggest problem can be at times over communication. Where I have an issue is, that if there was an problem with some of the decisions that were not made in the Limerick-Kilkenny match, why then was I put in as standby referee for the semi-final?” he mused.
The Turin official’s season was taking a pretty obvious route, it seemed, based on recent years and the practice of appointing referees for the final, but he was shocked when three of his other colleagues were chosen (from the small panel of 10) and he was completely overlooked.
“Every game we get an assessment, but at no time did anyone on the committee lift the phone and contact me and say they had a problem with my decisions. So, I am left here just to ponder. It is not a written rule, but usually whoever is stand-by referee, as I was for both 2012 and 2013, the two drawn games, I was appointed to referee both All-Ireland final replays,” he said.
“So given the fact that the game finished a draw, I didn’t referee the replay between Galway and Clare, so one was to assume then that when Fergal Horgan was appointed the referee that it was down to a two horse race for the want of a better expression, and that would be coming from the panel of referees. There is a panel of ten referees there and a lot of them would have the same feelings,” added McGrath.
He said the decision of the CRAC forced him to resign. “For me, really, indirectly, the Central Referees Appointment Committee, by not appointing me in any capacity, even as stand-by referee, really made the decision. I announced that I basically had retired, but they had made up my mind for me,” he said.
McGrath, who has refereed two All-Ireland final replays in 2012 and ’13 (and the All-Ireland club final of 2009) plans to remain on as Westmeath referee at club level and said that there has been a wave of support for him since last week’s announcement.
“I have had a lot of messages of support, even from the other nine referees on the panel of ten. They were all really dumbfounded and as I said, I don’t think I would be making any decision had I been appointed as linesman or standby referee on the day. If I had been linesman or standby referee on the day, I would have been very happy. It is a great occasion – an All-Ireland final. It has been three or four years since I have been involved in one on the line, and in 2013 I refereed the replay,” he said.
McGrath revealed that he took a stance on behalf of all referees and umpires whose commitment deserves better.
“Hopefully it is not a decision that I will regret. I don’t at the minute. I think I had to make a firm stance on something that myself and my team of umpires feel very strongly about. If this is the way that referees are going to be treated, then I want to make a stance and I hope that it doesn’t happen to any other referee in the near future or down the line,” he added. Westmeath County Board Chairman, Billy Foley said he is disappointed with the decision to completely overlook the Lake County whistler.
“We would like to express our solidarity with James McGrath. We think that James McGrath has been a wonderful servant to Westmeath GAA. In our opinion, he is the best referee in Ireland. He really refereed wonderfully all year. We are very disappointed that he didn’t get the All-Ireland final, and if he didn’t get to referee the match, we could accept that, but he certainly should have been involved on All-Ireland final day for all his efforts this year,” he said.
“We thought all the games he refereed, he refereed extremely well. At the same time, nothing against referee James Owens, who is refereeing the final. We wish him and his team of officials the very best of luck in the final, but overall, we are very disappointed, along with James McGrath, that he didn’t get the final.
“We certainly hope he will continue to referee here locally in Westmeath and we are sure he will. James has been a fabulous servant to Westmeath hurling and we will be delighted to see him refereeing plenty of games in the county,” the chairman added. (See further story inside this issue).
