Tipp GAA at crisis point over active referees
Tipperary GAA is seeking applications from interested individuals to participate in the upcoming Referee Foundation course in 2025, to address the future refereeing needs within the Premier County.
With the growth in popularity of Gaelic Games, the demand for match officials is increasing. With over 4,000 games being played in the county on an annual basis, the role of the referee is a particularly important cog of the wheel to ensure all games take place.
However, there has been a drop in the numbers of the current crop of officials, due to injury, work life balance, and age related factors.
During the last GAA season in 2024, a number of games had to be cancelled due to no referee available. This was very unfair to the clubs affected in these fixtures. Out of the 71 clubs in Tipperary, there are thirteen clubs without referees. This represents 18% which is not acceptable. The target is that every club has an active referee.
“We are at a crisis in Tipperary in relation to the number of qualified active referees,” said a statement from the Tipperary Referees Recruitment Committee.
Basic Club Referee Training Courses are provided every year by trained Referee Tutors in Tipperary. Last year, 18 new recruits were trained up. The first two modules will be completed online by the student in the comfort of their own home, while the next two modules will be completed as a group in Thurles.
The timeframe for the course is late February/early March. The course is developed in conjunction with Croke Park and supported through the Provincial Munster Referees Administrators.
The training course is now open to interested candidates to register. All clubs who do not currently have a referee in their club are encouraged to trawl their membership for prospective candidates. Forward on details of interested candidates to any of the following personnel listed below or e mail refereesadministrator.tipperary@gaa.ie
Tipperary Referee Recruitment Committee: Philip Kelly, Chairperson (North Division) 0872863683, John Ryan, Secretary (West Division) 0862417763, Derek O’Mahoney (South Division) 0830177891, John McCormack (West Division) 0877905630, Seamus Delaney (Mid Division) 0876396698, Conor Doyle (North Division) 0863506775 or from Referees Administration Committee: Philip Kelly (Chairperson), John Bob Ryan (Secretary), Franny Quinn (Divisional Administrator West), Keith Delahunty (Divisional Administrator South), Ciaran Timmons (Divisional Administrator North), Micheal Lowry (Divisional Administrator Mid).