Kerry GAA Referees Committee is hoping to recruit new referees and full information is outlined underneath as circulated to all Club Secretaries.Our members are asked to consider volunteering and contacting Mark Griffin, Referee Co-ordinator at 0879869911. Training courses will be in place soon.

RECRUITMENT OF REFEREES

Following a meeting of the Referees Committee, I've been asked to contact all secretaries, to the ask the clubs for their assistance in recruiting new referees. We as a committee, feel we are heading down a slippery slope when it comes to the actual numbers of active referees.

 To put it into figures:

There are 116 referees in the Eolaire 2017 and 7 more referees came to my attention, after it had gone to print, which gives us 123 referees, available to referee in Kerry County Leagues and Championships in both hurling and football. However, when contact was made with the 123 referees to find out whether they were senior referees and whether they were still interested and available to referee, this figure dropped dramatically to 67. Out of the 67 referees available, 56 are football only, 3 are hurling only and 8 officiate in both codes. Out of the 67 referees, 19 officiated in 5 games or less.

 We recently did a survey where we asked club secretaries to send in a list of active referees from their respective clubs. We got a few new names of young referees who had recently done the course but hadn’t refereed in many games, if any. Most of the clubs just sent the same old names, not knowing if they referee or not. The lack of communication between club and referee is something we must look into. 

 The most alarming statistic of all is that we have 25 Football Clubs and 10 Hurling Clubs, without a Senior referee. Some of these are obviously dual clubs and are counted twice but the figure remains too high. 

 We need to act now in our recruitment. What we are looking for are young people who are interested in refereeing, to officiate under 12 and under 14 games, and an older type, maybe an ex player, that could be available to referee a senior game within a year or two with the proper training.

 We are all in this together, our games cannot take place without players and equally so referees, so every club is responsible.

 The courses for new referees will take place early in 2018 and I urge all clubs to recruit at least one new referee.

 Regards,

Mark O Griofa

Referee's Co-ordinator

0879869911