By Ciaran Woods

c.woods@gaeliclife.com

DONEGAL whistler Jimmy White gets the Ulster Championship underway this Sunday as he throws in the ball between Antrim and Cavan at 3.45pm. The players have prepared intensely over the past months, but so too have the men in black as they have been getting themselves ready for another season under the microscope.

In fact, their preparations started way back in December with extensive laboratory testing and health checks to ensure that they are in the best possible physical shape for the season ahead. There have also been ongoing seminars and meetings for the pool of championship referees for both football and hurling, the most recent of which was just last week to provide absolute clarity on the rules of the game.

There is a pool of about 30 referees for football, and 25 for hurling, who are appointed centrally for the various senior inter-county clashes. Last weekend for example Tyrone whistler Michael Hughes took charge of the Westmeath-Dublin match while Armagh's Padraig Hughes was in New York for their game with Leitrim. National Referees Administrator Pierce Freaney confirmed to Gaelic Life this week that the appointment of referees to particular games was carefully considered, and that no rules were in place in relation to refereeing ties inside or outside their own province.

"It's not cross-provincial, not until the latter stages of the competition. We believe that any of our referees are capable of refereeing any game, and the only time we would not put a referee into a game is if their own county are playing, or if their county are playing the winners. We try to avoid putting the referees in a situation where it could be insinuated by people that their interests were conflicted."

There was much talk of a new fitness regime and criteria for inter-county referees based on that of European soccer's governing body, UEFA, but the administrator reveals that the GAA's own system now in place, which includes expert scientific analysis, is well beyond anything which could be adopted from other sports.

"We're way ahead of anything else that is out there. In conjunction with Dr Niall Moyna of DCU we have devised our own programme which for championship referees is very comprehensive. It started with a very strict medical before they did any testing, and they then did laboratory tests and field tests in DCU over the winter.

"The referees met last Tuesday, and the next meeting for those fella's will be in the middle of June. By then quite a few games will have been played and we'll have more of an idea what the issues are. We use video clips for presentations, but it's not the referee that is under scrutiny but rather the incident. That's what we've done in the last 12 months."

There will be no new technology available to the refs for this championship campaign, but they will once again be using the radio technology brought in last year. In that system, the referee is in radio communication with both his linesmen and with one umpire at each end of the ground. There were of course teething problems, including the sight of referees over at the sideline getting their earpiece secured by medical tape, but Freaney is confident that initial problems have been ironed out.

"The feedback has been positive. Like anything, some people are more comfortable with it than others, some are more used to using radio technology, but generally speaking it's positive. We're looking all the time at developing the technology that is available to us, but for now at least we're happy to go with what is available to us."

With more TV coverage than ever of Gaelic Games, and the increased analysis of games that comes with it, there is a chance that the performance of referees may be picked apart and put under the microscope more than in previous seasons. BBC's Match of the Day has been criticised by soccer chiefs for their over-emphasis on refereeing decisions, and GAA referees are hoping that the same sort of scrutiny will not be put on them in their amateur sport. Freaney acknowledges that such analysis of their decisions and performance is a concern to referees.

"It's a possibility. I know that The Sunday Game last weekend used their new technology and directed it towards the referee. It's unfortunate that was the case, and hopefully they'll re-direct it towards the players for the remainder.

"We're looking for optimum performance, the boys are ready for what's ahead, but like players mistakes will be made by referees and we have to live with that, and we try to do things to the best of our abilities."

At the start of each campaign, there is a belief that there has been an emphasis placed on certain rules which the referees are keen to be seen to implement. Last year, it seemed to be overcarrying which was blown as well as the stealing of crucial inches at free-kicks. However, Freaney insists that the only directive issued to the referees has been simply "to implement the rules" and he hopes that referees will be making the headlines for the right reasons.

"The best thing that can happen is a game where the players decide to play according to the rules, and if a referee has a large number of frees they tend to think that he's whistle-happy when in fact it's the case that players chose to foul instead of playing to the rules."