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GAA must clamp down hard on ref assaults - Davy Fitzgerald

Davy Fitzgerald believes it might be time for the GAA to make examples of those who physically abuse officials, if the phenomenon is to be stamped out.

An alleged assault on a referee in a club game in Wexford last weekend came just weeks after an incident in Roscommon that left a ref in hospital and games postponed in protest.

While new Waterford manager Fitzgerald accepts that he has had his own disagreements in the past with officials, he says the GAA has to be above physical abuse of referees.

"We can't tolerate hitting anybody, any official in the GAA," he told RTÉ Sport at the launch of Londis' sponsorship of RTÉ show Ireland’s Fittest Family.

"We should be above that, and we're going to have to deal with that, end of story.

"Whether they get something really wrong, really right, there is no room for it. And I'd be a fella that would have given out to referees and would have found it hard to understand decisions. But it's a tough job. For anyone to do that job is incredibly tough.

"I think it has always been there. If you look back at the last number of years, there always have been incidents. It has been highlighted, it's happened a small bit more frequent lately.

"My feeling is, the GAA are going to have to be very hard-handed in how they deal with it. They have to make one or two examples. If they have to, they have to. End of story."

It shouldn't be 'Us versus Them'

Fitzgerald believes that the chance for team managements to meet with officials to discuss rules and decisions after games would improve relations.

"What I'd really like to see, even from a county point of view, is more communication with the referees," he said.

"If you look at rugby, there's communication before and after, probably. And it's nice to have a

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