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TheManFromFerbane wrote:I think to be fair the county board looked at from the point of view that it was unfair to rob U21 players their chance of playing U21 hurling when it was a luntic idiotic supporter that did the deed.

Muck Savage wrote:

TheManFromFerbane wrote:I think to be fair the county board looked at from the point of view that it was unfair to rob U21 players their chance of playing U21 hurling when it was a luntic idiotic supporter that did the deed.

Sure you could say that about any team that have a clown that hits the ref. Fact is the county board are showing a lot of disrespect to the Ref's. Before the allowed the club back in they should have ensured that they handed over the clown, this way all would have been sorted. The clown gets a 2 year ban and his name out there, the ref's get some respect and the next clown would think twice.

Archangel wrote:We had a challenge game on Sat last, and one of our lads broke his thumb, now has 2 pins in it!!!
Obviously no official referee in charge, so I don't know how he's been looked after.
To be honest, it's hard to see players take to the field knowing they ain't insured.

Silken Thomas wrote:

Archangel wrote:We had a challenge game on Sat last, and one of our lads broke his thumb, now has 2 pins in it!!!
Obviously no official referee in charge, so I don't know how he's been looked after.
To be honest, it's hard to see players take to the field knowing they ain't insured.

Archangel, Not trying to rub you up the wrong way, or even rub you at all but surely if this player has paid club membership he is covered by insurance?

Similarily there is no official at training, so what happens if you get injured then?

I had an interesting conversation with a lawyer over the weekend.

It seems that while players exempt themselves somewhat from the rule of law in relation to assault by participating contact sport, there is a duty of care on the hosting club for the safety of the Referee in terms of his physical safety.

Taking into consideration the recent assaults on referee, all of which are now "gone legal", what the hell are we coming to in this association when referees have to resort to Civil law let alone criminal law to protect themselves.

If the rate of assault keeps up, the GAA could find itself joined in a law suit that will cause significant monetary burden for Clubs in terms of stewarding at Clubs games.

If a referre is assualted and decides to take a civil case against GAA (his employer ) especially if assailant is not "of means" he may have a very stateable case.
1.Employer has same obligations towards part time as full time employees.
2. Foreseable risk (countless assualts in last few years )
3. How was risk evaluated? Prob not all.
4. How was risk controlled. Prob not at all.
5. How was referee trained to deal with such situations?
etc etc

If current mess is left fester, the recruiting of good referees will be impossible, also the potential costs are enormous.
As a organisation, GAA needs to do whatever necessary to get to a similar position as rugby in relation to the role of the referee.
The difference is startling and is clearly linked with current problems