Wexford referees upbeat after 'constructive' meeting with the county board

GAA referee representatives have welcomed the progress made at a meeting with the Wexford county board, following the alleged assault of a match official at a Junior A football match last Sunday.

Dickie Murphy, a four-time All-Ireland final referee and a member of the Wexford referee's committee hailed the meeting as 'very constructive’ and he believes that there’s now a path forward for real change with how these incidents are dealt with.

Wexford Chairman Micheál Martin, outlined the work that the referee administration committee had already undertaken as part of the board's strategic plan.

Under this plan all clubs must hold a workshop for mentors from Under-11 to adult in their club in the next seven days where mentors must to go through a self-evaluation of their conduct towards match officials.

Wexford GAA will also propose at the next meeting of Central Council that a Special Congress be held to discuss the possibility of lifetime bans for verbal or physical threat to an official.

They are also calling on the association to commence a review and simplification of the GAA disciplinary system.

Murphy believes the outcome of the meeting represents real progress when it comes to referee safety.

"I think we had a very good meeting, a very constructive meeting with the county board," he told RTÉ Sport.

"In fairness to the county chairman Michael Martin, the whole management committee of the board was there and there was a huge turnout of referees.

"At the end of the meeting we decided that we’re going to referee next weekend and we came up with some very good initiatives that will hopefully be a template for other counties as well.

"Serious things have happened in other countries over the last few weeks as well and not playing