GAA must respond strongly to referee assaults, says Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald

Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald has called for a heavy-handed response to referee abuse in GAA.

The alleged assault of a match official in Wexford on Sunday was the latest incident to shine a light on the plight of referees in Gaelic games.

It followed a similar occurrence in Roscommon earlier this month, which spurred all referees in the county to remove their services for one weekend.

A recent study revealed almost one quarter of referees in Gaelic games have encountered physical abuse during their career.

Attention is now turning to what changes the GAA can make to further discourage such acts.

"I think it's always been there. If you look back at the last number of years, there always has been incidents," said Fitzgerald.

"It has been highlighted, it's happened a small bit more frequently lately.

"We can't tolerate hitting anybody, any official in the GAA, whether they get something really wrong, really right, there is no room for it. And I'd be a fella that would have given out to referees and would have found it hard to understand decisions. But it's a tough job. For anyone to do that job is incredibly tough.

"My feeling is, the GAA are going to have to be very hard-handed in how they deal with it.

"And number two, what I'd really like to see, even from a county point of view, is more communication with the referees. If you look at rugby, there's communication before and after, probably. And it's nice to have a bit of communication so you can understand their side.

"It shouldn't be us vs them because, let's be honest, refereeing is a tough, tough job. No matter what, whether we like decisions they make or don't make, we have to make sure we protect them and mind them."

'They have to make one or two examples'

Fitzgerald feels big punishments will deter any future offences.

"I think if we're heavy handed in how we deal with it. They have to make one or two examples. If they have to, they have to, end of story," he said.

"The referees themselves know they're not always right and once a referee can put his hand up and say 'I deliberately did not go at any team to do them', we as managers have to accept totally that they're going to make mistakes. We have to accept that, and we have to get on with it.

"But there is no place for attacking a referee or an official, there is no place in the GAA for that. We should be above that, and we're going to have to deal with that, end of story. We're going to have to be hard-hitting."