DÓNAL ÓG CUSACK has called for more support for hurling referees from umpires and linesmen.
Speaking on The Sunday Game last night, the former Cork goalkeeper highlighted several incidents from the Tipperary v Waterford and Galway v Wexford games over the weekend.
'You'd want to be a very brave person to be a hurling referee.. but they need their umpires and linesmen on the ball' - the panel assess some of the refereeing incidents on Saturday
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 5, 2024
📺 Watch The Sunday Game on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player#TheSundayGame #GAA pic.twitter.com/Q3LMD0XOHD
“You’d want to be a very brave person to be a hurling referee,” Cusack said.
“But because of the challenges they have — there’s so much going on — they need their umpires on the ball, which they’re not in general, and also their linesmen helping them, and very often, they’re not doing that either.”
The three-time All-Ireland winner referenced a “bizarre incident” where James Owens ran across the face of goal as a penalty was being struck, and another where the umpires were split on a Wexford effort.
He also criticised a messy restart after half time at Wexford Park, and the “wrong decision” of Conor Cooney being shown a yellow card in the other game.
“We don’t think referees are getting the help from their umpires and linesmen,” Cusack said as the clips were being played.
“Human error can happen, mistakes can happen but the onus and the burden of responsibility shouldn’t be just on the referee. It’s about the team of officials,” former Wexford camogie star Ursula Jacob added.
“A management team works together, a group of players work together, so a team of officials have to do the same. That’s just to support the referee to make the best decisions possible.”
These two games against top English sides are great opportunities for Tom Ahern to propel himself into the Irish squad
@Kevin Ryan: izzy, baird, conan, pendergast and timoney all ahead at this stage.
@chris mcdonnell: stopped reading at conan….
@chris mcdonnell: I don’t want to knock anyone. They’re all good players of course; but I think we know by now that Prendergast and Timoney are pretty unlikely to ever establish themselves in the Ireland side. Ahern has the potential to do so.
@Niall English: The 42 is an interesting selection to have your mid life crises on
@Niall English: conan ahead of the lot of them. Not sure about the rest though.
@chris mcdonnell: I think Baird has moved down the Irish pecking order. Not sure the reason why but it seems he has. I think Ahern will be more used in 2nd row by IRL going forward but also cover 6 ahead of Baird. I think Izzy will eventually take a starting hold on that 6 jersey. Conan is an 8 who can do a job at 6. lineout skilks wouldn’t be his strength though and that works against starting him. My feeling is POM will start v England at 6 or at least be on the bench. No doubt he’s behind many others in general play but our LO is critical to starting the 6n’s well and he’s still our best LO jumper.
@Michael Corkery: He’s only started 9 times at 6. Munster have won a grand total of 1 of those games. Putting that to one side, it’s still manifestly obvious that he should be concentrating on second row, given both his height and the number of options at blindside.
If Munster were talking about the good things they did against Leinster, it was a short talk. We need the injury list to clear up, it would be great to pick a 23 match day squad that isn’t influenced by injured players.
Don’t know why Munster are always going on about O’Mahony these days. The guy is busted flush, worn out and too old. Not his fault now. Munster have to pick Ahern ahead of him and bench him. We lost to England last year because he wasn’t at the races with the young English back row so we lost another grand slam because he wasn’t up to it.
@Jimmy Bean: i do recall doris getting grossly outplayed by ben earl in that game also, not the first time hes gone AWOL when the chips are down.
@Niall English: Mr Bean only sees what he wants to see.
@Niall English: He left VanDFl and Doris on their own to play by themselves against the English. He was benched for the South Africa tour so it’s just not me who thinks he’s past it.
@Leonard Barry: Lotta beans on here
@Jimmy Bean: you know the French saying « No scrum, no win ». I got a similar one for the upcoming England game, « No lineout, no win ». Certainly PO’M is not as good as others around the field, but if our lineout calling and throwing is going to continue to be as bad as it has recently, the 2nd best defensive LO in the world is going to have an absolute field day. We’ll need PO’M on the bench at the very least. He can win it at the front if all else fails.