Getting Back in the Game/you'd want your head examined to referee a ladies football match

I nearly caused havoc by giving your man a dig. Fcuking stupid behaviour. Was taken aback so unforgivably nearly lost it.

Because usually that never causes it. You must have been unlucky

I always look them up again before the game. The only glaring error I can think of was throwing the ball up after blowing it back for a possible injury when it should have been possession to the team who had it, but there was only a few minutes left and the game was done by then.
I found the whole thing really odd.
Most likely my refereeing is poor, but it’s honest.
I honestly should report it to the county board, but it’s easier just to wash my hands.
What is vexing is I’d given up my afternoon as a really big favour. I was really taken aback by the venom. I think it’s just a reflection of the seething entitlement of young folk.

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I was far too close to it. Utterly crass.

I’d ask you to keep refereeing. Your descriptions of the trials of a ladies underage referee are one of the most entertaining things on the INTERNET

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Watching the rugby world cup, I believe bringing ref mics into the GAA would change the level of respect towards a referee from coaches, players and if televised, supporters. Of course, it would not be viable outside of games high profile enough to be televised but the respect garnered could possibly be trickled down through a culture change to all levels of playing, over time.

You needed to book a hape of them - don’t take that shit

You should one hundred percent report the cunt. I notice it a lot over here with lads involved in women’s sport, both Hockey and GAA. They think they are the fucking business and abuse refs left right and centre.

Herself was playing a crowd a few years ago and they’d a male coach who thought he was Mourinho. He was giving it big locks on the line, calling “plays” which the team had no clue and generally being a cunt to the umpires. He lost his rag at one point so I gave him some lip saying if he was any good he’d be coaching at a higher level. He fairly shut up after that.
They lost 3-1 too.

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Men running ladies teams can be very strange. I don’t know is it they’re playing up to their perceived audience

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I notice a lot of coaching “gurus” on twitter coach women’s teams.

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Definitely an element of that.

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I observed an underage soccer coaching team once. They had all the lingo and were constantly haranguing and chiding their young charges of which my eldest fella was one. It was never ending and those fellas had all the language. Anyway there was one thing they kept shouting at the young lads, without success, it was gas how it didn’t stop them or they didn’t develop it at all. I watched on silently, and on the way how I turned to the 3 lads I’d brought to the game and asked them

“Lads, do any of you know what goalside means”.

Not one of them did. I chuckled and made a mental note for my own coaching career. Never ever assume they know anything.

The year to come copper fastened my suspicions about these coaching gurus and needless to say soccer dropped off the radar for the lads in due course.

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Abuse of refs didn’t start with the younger generation

No, it didn’t. It’s odd though. People feel entitled to treat you in a way nobody would dream of treating a person in real life. I found yesterday shocking. It seems like it’s become a thing with some people and clubs that the referee is a non person, who you can treat however you want. You wouldn’t ever get it in any other situation or walk of life. And you’re giving them your time, like one of the few bits of free time you have in the week, so they can play their game. They wouldn’t treat a person like that anywhere else. They’d be thrown out of a restaurant or shop or pub, or arrested. For some reason, all normal boundaries break down, and it’s like you are their property to treat with whatever level of derision or aggression they want. It shows the nature of a person I suppose, how they’ll treat somebody when they feel they have immunity from consequences. And that’s what it is. For some reason, a referee in the GAA (LGFA) has become an abstract figure. It’s like they feel they own you for an hour. Some are really nice and fine, but an increasing number are not.
I don’t know what is it about sport or society or upbringing, that causes it. It would be an interesting psychology study.
I think it’s at a level worse than soccer now, at least that’s how it seemed.
It will end up costing the club’s dearly, because it will become something that folk will only do for money. Maybe that’s the way it should be.

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I’m not sure if this is related but I’ll shoot anyway. I attended a few Swedish premier league matches with friends and they consistently would spend the whole game as fans screaming at the ref for stuff that wasn’t true, for free kicks that weren’t free kicks, that it was their throw in when their own player touched it last and for fouls where their player clearly dived. It was incessant. I asked one of them why they do this and the responded that it was their duty as fans to pressure the ref into giving decisions that weren’t warranted. If fans are collectively doing this, I have no doubt that players feel pressure to partake in this and coaches are at the same behaviour, with the ugly ‘win at all costs’ mentality that has crept into GAA in recent years. As I responded earlier as a possible solution, a rugby style ref mic and video analysts on the sideline at the highest levels may change the culture with the elite in GAA sports and the change in behaviour could trickle down to the more amateur levels, over time.
However, it’s a disgrace and it’s ugly and well done for volunteering for a job that anyone in their right mind would avoid like the plague. That takes character.

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There was a soccer match on an adjacent pitch yesterday where nobody was shouting at the ref, despite it being a high standard competitive game. . I think the abuse is significantly worse in GAA, certainly in LGFA than even in soccer. That is something I never would have believed could possibly happen.

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It’s one of the main factors behind home team dominance.

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It makes sense, yet it doesn’t feel right.

I’m sure soccer refs are told to abandon a game if there is stuff happening they don’t like, and the consequences are then severe for the teams involved. It’s an option GAA refs should use as well, if 40 players show up on a Saturday and the game gets abandoned the day is wasted for everyone - the pressure on the troublemakers then comes from inside their club rather than outside.

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As I always say…players get refs in line with the level they are playing…if you want the better refs play a better level