THE NEW DONEGAL GAA Referees’ Administrator, Shane Toolan, will target ‘recruitment and retention’ in his first year in the position.
The Aodh Ruadh clubman was elected on Monday night, taking up the baton from Pat Walsh, whose five-year term was completed at the county convention last month.
Toolan – who staved off the candidacy of Martin McKinley and Michelle Bennett to take the post at this week’s county committee meeting – has warned that a ‘bottleneck’ is looming in Donegal unless issues are addressed this year.
Picture caption: Shane Toolan has been an active referee who is now the Referees Administrator in Donegal. Picture courtesy of Shane Toolan.
“There is a demographic problem with referees in Donegal,” Toolan says.
“The top referees are becoming older as each season comes on and they’ll soon come to retirement age.
“There is also a problem with recruitment at a lower level – only four new referees came on board last season. We’re soon going to come to a bottleneck here.
“Recruitment and retention are the issues I hope to zero in on this year. We need to retain the recruits and put them on a pathway.”
In 2015, 17 of Donegal’s 40 clubs had only one active referee listed and the five named by Four Masters and St Mary’s Convoy were the exception rather than the rule.
“There is a demographic problem with referees in Donegal,”
As Toolan notes, though, how to get new whistlers is ‘the 150 million dollar question’ but it’s one he wants to get the answer to.
This Thursday, Toolan meets with Ulster Council representatives and next Thursday he’ll sit down with officials from Croke Park, when he’ll be briefed on the new structures that will be rolled out for referees.
“The best recruitment tool I have now is the panel of referees,” he says.
“We also need the clubs’ help because we have a mathematical problem here. Teams are fielding a minimum of seven teams and some are only providing one referee. That gives an obvious numbers problem.
“The only solution is getting new people in and getting them up to a standard so we can push them on as fast as possible, rather than the slow build up, which can lead to frustration.
“There can maybe be a reluctance to use new blood in case it doesn’t work out, but we have to try to marry those things together. I hope to use our existing experienced referees to mentor the new guys.
“That’s why we have had so many at the top level – they were looked after well when they came in.”
There remain the obvious issues and questions about the standard of refereeing in Donegal. Toolan observes that he joined the referees panel at a time when Seamus McGonagle, Robbie O’Donnell and Jimmy White were at inter-county level, whereas now there is only Shaun McLaughlin from Malin on the national panel.
“I think one of Pat’s biggest successes was with the standard,” says Toolan.
“He got enough guys to a good enough standard. It has certainly drastically improved in reality. Look at the discipline figures and all that has happened.
“You get boys not happy here or there, but we’ve had no major issues. You get emotive opinions just after the final whistle, but a week later you’ll not find too many complaining.
“That is a sign that our refereeing has improved and is a very good base to start from.
“There is a lot of scope now to improve on what Pat done over his five years. He definitely raised the standards of referee and I want to continue the good work he started in Donegal.”
Toolan originally hails from Galway, but his mother is one of the O’Boyce’s of the former O’Boyce’s café on the Port Road in Letterkenny. With his job in the AIB, Toolan has reached Ballyshannon via spells in Bundoran, Letterkenny and Buncrana and he played for the Bundoran, St Eunan’s and Buncrana clubs in his time.
“Our refereeing has improved.”
Now retired from AIB, he founded the Ballyshannon and District Museum.
His journey to the position into which he was elected this week has been equally colourful.
Although he played Gaelic football, he only joined the senior referees’ panel in 2011, Walsh’s first year as the administrator having previously taken charge of games at underage level.
A noted rugby referee, Toolan believes that he can use his knowledge of the two codes to aid his new job.
His whistle will now be hung up and will only be taken down ‘if there’s a completely chronic shortage’.
He does admit that he’s in need of bodies and has a theory that there would be a near-crisis were it not for the diligence of some of those now under his watch.
“We’re lucky that referees are being doubled up and trebled up some weekends – that papers over a problem, though,” he says.
“Cracks will begin to appear as people retire. The number of games some of them are doing would blow your mind. With some of the referees we have, it wouldn’t be unusual to have them doing 50 or more games in a year.”
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