Brian Gavin: James Owens' behaviour during Waterford vs Tipperary was baffling
Referee James Owens during the Munster SHC match between Waterford and Tipperary. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The pool of inter-county hurling referees seems extremely shallow at the moment. Colm Lyons was on duty two weekends in a row and in Waterford on Saturday evening James Owens was in charge for the second game in six days in Waterford.
The theory might be that an experienced referee not from a Munster county was required for a game that threatened to be fiery. But Owens, as I mentioned last week, is not refereeing with confidence and it was a gamble assigning him to the game.
Cork supporters were aggrieved with some of his calls the previous Sunday and in Walsh Park. Tipperary and Waterford to a lesser extent had more reason to gripe. It began with the referee inexplicably getting in the eyeline of Brian Hogan for Stephen Bennett’s early penalty goal.
James’ behaviour was baffling. Either he felt he was standing in the way of one of his umpires, which I believe was the case, or he realised he was positioned in the wrong spot as per some guideline from Croke Park. Either way, he was wrong.
At the very least, he should have blown his whistle a couple of times to make sure Bennett didn’t take the penalty before he had moved to the other side of the parallelogram. But he didn’t and the placed ball should have been retaken to be fair to the Tipperary goalkeeper.
It struck me as another example of a referee who is seriously doubting himself. The amount of cards he handed out on Saturday was minimal compared to the Cork game and the games were judged differently. Owens is clearly overthinking things and that has to be a consideration for the referee administrators.
GOAL! Stephen Bennett from the spot for @WaterfordGAA pic.twitter.com/XYlOLHsAWX
— The GAA (@officialgaa) May 4, 2024
He received criticism too for awarding Waterford’s second goal. He booked Kevin Mahony for a body collide on Bryan O’Mara in the build-up to the goal on the advice of his linesman. However, the rulebook don’t empower him to cancel the score contrary to what a lot of people believe and so while he missed the free out for Tipperary he couldn’t do anything to correct it. On the flipside, the equalising free won by Alan Tynan against Tadhg de Búrca at the end was on the soft side.
Owens’ umpires also appeared to miss a square ball for Tipperary’s late goal too. Again, a 20-second referral to a video referee would have confirmed this and when there is so much on the line the use of such technology has to be considered soon.
He also erred in not sending off Patrick “Bonner” Maher for a dangerous mistimed tackle on Darragh Lyons. It was an attempt to shoulder but if the Richie Hogan foul on Cathal Barrett in the 2019 All-Ireland final was a red card offence then this was too.
Earlier that day in Wexford, there was no duty of care shown by Cian Byrne to Donal O’Shea so he was correctly dismissed. It was the right call by Seán Stack but I’m concerned he’s showing too much cockiness in how he goes about his business.
Stack is a referee full of potential but that should be realised by now and not picking up a group game here and there. He is on the road to recovery after a troubled All-Ireland club final and has little reason to be arrogant.
With the aid of linesman Chris Mooney, he wrongly penalised Conor Cooney with a yellow for a genuine, skilful flick on the ball. The contact doing so made it sound worse than it did and the Galway man should never have entered the book.
Stack also overruled his umpires a few times, which isn’t the greatest look even if the right call is being made. Perhaps the sun in Wexford was an issue but you don’t want to see the judgement of your team undermined.
I stated my hope last week that Owens was receiving the support of his superiors in Croke Park. I sure wish both he and Stack in the coming weeks are provided with honest but constructive feedback with the sole aim of getting better.
Because the stakes are getting higher now, the room for mistakes is dwindling with each week that passes. If Lyons and Owens are picking up game after game, I can only imagine how much Fergal Horgan would be in demand if he was still available.
Football refereeing isn’t without its difficulties too. David Gough is the leading man but he might wish for the last 10 minutes of the Connacht final back as he seemed to lose his way.
First, he was hard on Galway. He didn’t allow them take a quick free when they had all the momentum. But their winning free was highly questionable. There were more grounds for it to have been a free out to Mayo than anything else.
In Ennis, Fergal Kelly had a relatively stress free day although he allowed Diarmuid O’Connor to foul three times, two of them high offences, in the first half and never booked him.
Did he whistle for a foul before Ikem Ugwueru scored his goal for Clare? It’s difficult to make out but the Kerry defenders seem to momentarily stop just before he did.
