Last weekend proved yet again that Gaelic football referees are a post-match topic of conversation. With hurling the referee chat almost always comes pre-match.
David Gough’s decision not to award Kerry a free for Kevin McManamon’s frontal hit on Peter Crowley in the dying moments of Sunday’s All-Ireland football semi-final stole some headlines in the wake of Dublin’s win.
Midway through the week and Brian Gavin’s presence in the middle of Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final inched into the limelight. Particularly when one former Tipperary player questioned why Kilkenny finals are so often refereed by Leinster men.
“I’d say Kilkenny are happy enough with the referee but Tipperary are apprehensive,” James Woodlock told the Irish Examiner.
While only two of Cody’s 11 All-Ireland titles have come with a Munster referee in charge, there is no suggestion that Offalyman Gavin favours the Cats.
Even so, one incident in particular may be playing on the minds of Tipperary fans.
In the first half of the 2011 All-Ireland final between the great rivals, Gavin awards a free to Tipperary’s Bonner Maher and a small exchange of views occurs between a knot of players.
In the middle of it all Kilkenny wing-back Tommy Walsh appears to make an effort to wallop Maher but he misses and catches the referee on the nose.
The official is patched up and carries on, with Walsh escaping censure. For some in Tipperary this was seen as a vital decision – the influential wing-back stayed on the field and Kilkenny went on to regain the Liam McCarthy a year after Tipperary spoiled their ‘Drive for Five’.
On this week’s GAA Hour, former Galway forward Damien Hayes recounts a conversation with Gavin that suggests the referee was simply going by the book and accepting that Walsh’s stroke was accidental. But it would have been different if he had hit the target.
“One of the last times I spoke to him was on an All-Star trip to San Francisco. We just happened to get the same boat over to Alcatraz,” says Hayes.
“It was a few months after the Tommy Walsh incident, when Tommy went to hit Bonner Maher with the hurl but he connected with Gavin. I remember saying to him, ‘Did you contemplate going off at any stage?’ And he said, ‘I was there to referee an All-Ireland and I was going to do my job’.
“Then I said, ‘Here, If Tommy Walsh had hit Bonner Maher that time, what would you have done?’ He just looks at me and says, ‘Sure I would have had to send him off. But wasn’t he lucky he hit me?’
“He gave such an honest answer, he wasn’t giving me an answer for the sake of it.”
Gavin is renowned as a referee who lets the game flow, doesn’t over-do it on the whistle and uses his common sense for the good of the spectacle.
“I used to love seeing Brian Gavin because you knew what you got with him,” said retired Dublin dual star Conal Keaney. “He let it flow and he let a little bit go as well, to a degree, which used to be good for me. He is fair, he is going to do the right thing, he will let things go as much as possible and let the game flow.
“The last thing you want is lads blowing the whistle every 10 seconds because it is a small little free – especially in the first 15 minutes, like this weekend, when it is going to be helter-skelter. Just let it settle down rather than blowing the whistle every few minutes.”
Both Keaney and Hayes agree he is the best referee in the country, which is reflected in the fact he is this Sunday refereeing his fourth final, following 2011, 2013 and the 2014 replay.
“Brian has refereed an awful lot of challenge matches over the years with Galway and during a challenge match he would tell you straight away what a free was for,” said Hayes.
“But in Championship I always enjoyed him refereeing – he was very fair, it was always the same for one side as it was for the other.”
You can here the Brian Gavin conversation from 24 minutes below. Alternatively subscribe here on iTunes.
