Declan Bogue

GAA REFEREES IN Down are strongly considering strike action in the wake of last week’s county final controversy.

The 42 understands that a number of high-profile games are at risk, including this weekend’s county hurling final between Portaferry and Ballycran on Sunday in Newry.

The move follows Kilcoo’s protest against the appointment of Paul Faloon as matchday referee for their county final against Burren, an appeal which Down GAA later rejected as ‘entirely baseless’ in a lengthy statement.

Kilcoo’s appeal to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) was dismissed, although Faloon subsequently decided not to take up the appointment, leaving stand-by referee Brian Higgins to ultimately take charge of the game, which Kilcoo won by nine points.

Meath’s David Gough had initially agreed to replace Faloon for the game before later changing his mind. Referees in the county are understood to be angry that Down GAA first made contact with Gough on Friday, in advance of the DRA rejecting Kilcoo’s appeal and upholding Faloon’s appointment.

Part of the opposition to Faloon’s appointment is understood to date back to August 2020 and a round-robin championship game in which Kilcoo, then the defending Ulster champions, lost by a point against Warrenpoint.

The game ended with Kilcoo believing that more additional time should have been played at the end of the second half.

Conleith Gilligan, Kilcoo’s assistant manager, said at the time: “We probably would have loved the extra couple of minutes that we probably felt we were due, to have a crack at it, but the referee didn’t play them and that is for somebody else.”

A man in his 20s was cautioned by police in November 2020 after a late-night abusive phone call was made to Faloon.

Faloon has not refereed Kilcoo since, though it is understood that he has been presented with the opportunity to referee matches involving the club. Despite being part of the GAA’s national referees panel, his involvement had been quiet in Down over the last few months.

Refereeing appointments by the Competitions Control Committee normally sit outside the GAA’s appeals process. In this instance, Kilcoo found a loophole — believed to have come from a similar case in Carlow — that they could use to register an objection.

“As an intercounty championship match official of considerable standing, [Faloon's] was an appropriate appointment,” Down GAA said on Monday.

“An appeal against this appointment was then pursued by the Kilcoo club, on the grounds of perceived bias. We regarded this as entirely baseless and were determined to fight for the integrity of the referee and the appointment.”

After their initial appeal was turned down, Kilcoo took their case to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA), who rejected the case on Saturday morning — which Down GAA welcomed as “an entirely satisfactory ruling”.

When Down GAA then returned to Faloon to finalise arrangements ahead of Sunday’s final, The 42 understands that the referee made three requests: that the Down county board would issue a statement detailing the Kilcoo appeal and why it was refuted; that stewards around the ground would be brought in from another county; and that he would be fitted with a microphone during the game.

Down GAA were not able to grant any of these, and after sharing the text of their proposed statement with Faloon, he withdrew from the game, leaving Down in search of a replacement.

The 42 contacted Paul Faloon for this article, but he had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Although Gough had already agreed to do it, he then contacted Down at 11.30am on the morning of the game to say he had reconsidered.

At noon, some supporters of Kilcoo and Burren had gathered at the gates of Pairc Esler, but had to be refused entry until they had a replacement lined up, with Higgins ultimately appointed to take charge.

After the game, Kilcoo manager Karl Lacey told reporters that he had no knowledge or input into the appeal.

Defender Ryan McEvoy was asked about the refereeing situation afterwards, and said: “To be honest, as players, as a group, we knew Paul was supposed to do the match and then the first I heard of it was when I looked at Twitter this morning and seen that David Gough was supposed to be doing it, then Brian Higgins.”

McEvoy continued: “Until this morning, I personally knew nothing about it and it was never really mentioned at training because we were just worried about ourselves and our performance and turning up on the day.”

Kilcoo beat Burren by 2-12 to 0-9, sealing their fifth straight county title.