All-Ireland final hurling referee Brian Gavin feels that Dublin manager Ger Brennan’s words in Croke Park on Sunday evening and the support of the his County board should finally see video technology assistance become available in the GAA.
Gavin has long supported the introduction of some form of VAR, pointing out there has been consistent calls for it since Tipperary’s ‘ghost’ goal against Waterford in the 2018 Munster hurling championship, but the controversies in last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final, including debate over whether the ball had crossed the Kerry line for a Dublin goal, may be the final push for Croke Park to fully examine how they can use video technology to help referees.
Former hurling ref Brian Gavin has long been a supporter of video technology in Gaelic Games
‘How long have we been talking about this? How many years ago was Austin Gleeson and the ghost Tipperary goal, eight years? So, that’s how long this has been talked about and it still hasn’t been introduced,’ Gavin said.
‘We had Limerick bringing a motion to Congress after they lost an All-Ireland semi-final to Kilkenny over a 65 not awarded. And now, we have what happened on Sunday again.
‘The truth is that more needs to be done to help out referees and the use of technology is an obvious one. When you have Dickie Murphy above in the Hawkeye room, and referees being wired up to so many people, it wouldn’t delay the game that much for a ref to be told that you need to take 30 seconds to look at something again,’ Gavin said.
A screen grab from RTÉ which appears to show the ball crossing the Kerry goalline
‘And with something like Kerry’s goal on Sunday and the square ball, it wouldn’t take long to ascertain that that should have been a free out. If the technology is there, we should be using it. There is too much at stake now for players and everyone else and referees are in favour of anything that would make their job a little easier and ensure that they aren’t being discussed on The Sunday Game that night.’
When the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) were given the Limerick motion to tease out following the 2020 Congress, some of the concerns raised included the slowing down of the game, and how long it took VAR to adjudicate on incidents in the Premier League.
There was also concern about the fact that video technology could not be used at every ground. However, Gavin feels that is a moot argument, as they don’t have Hawkeye at every ground and until recently, they didn’t have the hooter at every county ground.
Gavin talks to players during the 2007 All-Ireland quarter-final between Cork and Waterdord
‘This comes up all the time with something like this, that it won’t be at every ground. But maybe video technology shouldn’t be used at every ground, and it just should be used for the big championship games. I think it has reached a stage now where it has to come in.
‘There were the same concerns raised before Hawkeye came in, but look at that technology. It intervened in the 2014 hurling final and meant that game was a draw. If it had not been there, that point might have been awarded and the game would have been decided on a score that shouldn’t have been given,’ Gavin says in reference to John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s 97-yard free that was judged to be just wide by Hawkeye in the final moment of the drawn 2014 hurling final.
‘And that’s why it should be brought in. I don’t think we should use it for every foul or every contentious decision, but things like last Sunday’s blatant square ball, things like red card offences which might have been missed or something that cost a team a legitimate score. They could also be used to ensure a 45 or 65 has been awarded properly.
‘Referees are broadly in favour of it, because it would just provide an extra bit of help to them and that is what we should be looking at doing.
‘As we have seen this weekend, some more help from technology and the number of cameras that are around Croke Park wouldn’t go a-miss.
‘All we would be doing is helping the referee to get as many decisions right as possible.’
