“You’re a f**king shocking referee” – Mountbellew-Moylough players set to face lengthy ban

"Do you not know what a f**king mark is?"

A number of Mountbellew-Moylough players are set to face a long term ban after an altercation with referee Jerome Henry in the Connacht SFC semi-final. The Galway champions lost narrowly to Padraig Pearses, and in the last five minutes of the match, there were several refereeing decisions that were made by Henry, which could have been deemed to be very harsh on Mountbellew-Moylough. When the full time whistle went, several players from the Galway side rushed towards the match official, and verbal abuse occurred along with pushing and shoving. Two of the players face allegations of assaulting the referee and a further five have been named for abusing the match official. A spokesperson for the Connacht Council said the matter is being dealt with at the moment. "Due process is being followed and it would be inappropriate to comment in any manner on the matter," he said. Referee Henry outlined the abuse he said he suffered directly after he blew the full-time whistle, when he was surrounded by irate Mountbellew-Moylough players.

"After I blew my whistle to signal the end of the game, I was knocked forward due to being pushed strongly in my back. "I was then verbally abused and subjected to threatening conduct by a number of An Creagán/Maigh Locha players."

In his report, Henry, who had to be escorted from the pitch by stewards, outlined the verbal abuse which he says was directed at him. "These An Creagán/Maigh Locha players surrounded me in a threatening demeanour and were less than 1m from me as they shouted verbal abuse such as, 'You f**king cheat,' 'You’re a f**king p***k', 'Why didn’t you give us the f**king mark’, 'You f**king robbed us you p***k", "What the f**k ref'.

"You’re a f**king shocking referee", "Do you not know what a f**king mark is", "You are a f**king cheat, nothing else, a f**king cheat"."

The Castlebar Mitchels official, who refereed the delayed 2020 All-Ireland minor final last July between Derry and Kerry, said he was pushed in the back on two different occasions and that one of his linesmen had been shoulder-charged.