McCague's initiative must address `ball in play' time
Sunday October 08 2000
So, some 50 years after the GAA got rid of the Bogue Clock, Seán McCague is in favour of reintroducing some sort of time-keeping which should take that burden off the unfortunate, overburdened referee. Trouble is that Seán McCague has not informed us whether, or how, whatever system he has in mind is to be less hilarious than what we've endured for half a century.
The Official Guide, Part 2, Rules of Control 1.2, Duties of the Referee, (v) page 15 ordains `To record playing time and to extend time in each half for deliberate or incidental delay'. Nothing much of ambiguity or any other difficulty in that, I hear you remark. No. Except for the wee fraternal arrangement whereby one Kerryman, Danny Lynch, whose job it is to keep the public well guided on all matters GAA, continues to allow another Kerryman, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, to keep the public misguided on the matter of time-keeping in the GAA.
Dear Mícheál was at it again, last Monday week. ``The amount of time added on is at the discretion of the referee'' quoth he for the umpteenth time, and with all the gravitas of Henry VIII asserting that he really had not been married five times already. As we see in the previous paragraph, it is nothing of the sort: the ref has a DUTY to keep track of ALL lost time in each half, and to add it on at the end of the relevant half. (And if the GAA had the wit to ensure that its wee Rules Booklets were properly distributed one for every spectator at county finals, say we would not have the doleful duty of setting dear Mícheál to rights, this morning.)
Further, we see that the term `injury time' is an utter misnomer: the rule dictates that time has to be extended for scores, wides, frees, line balls, 65s, scatters (i.e. every time the ball goes dead: `incidental delay'), as well as for time-wasting (`deliberate delay') and injuries.
Pick any hurling video from your collection and you'll quickly discover that all 65s are taking more than 20 seconds between the award and the puck of the ball, resumption of play; all scores, wides and line balls more than ten seconds; while time lost over frees varies hugely. You'll find that the actual `ball in play' time of hurling matches is seldom much more than half the specified 70 minutes. No doubt, the same is the case in Gaelic football.
So that all the hullabaloo about a `mistake' of a minute or two by this or that ref is utterly misconceived. If whatever system Seán McCague envisages does not address this fundamental reality and fault it will be as big a waste of time as talking ideals, or egalitarianism, to the GPA. Which little dotes, upon discovering that they may be asked to `make the sacrifice' of actually playing 70 minutes, doubtless will proclaim their `entitlement' to a proportionate increase in their fees.
- By Kevin Cashman
