Youngest whistler Conor keeps looking forward

PAUL FITZPATRICK spoke to Ballinagh’s Conor Dourneen, the youngest inter-county referee on the national football panel.

He was on a flight from Dubai when the word came through. Somewhere in the clouds over eastern Europe, he found he had been accepted to the national refereeing panel. Conor Dourneen cracked a smile.

At 27, the Ballinagh clubman is now the youngest referee on the 40-strong national football panel but, like everyone else involved in the game, he has been in limbo in recent months.

From a sporting point of view, it was cruel timing. Dourneen had been promoted to the national panel in November and completed the required seminars and passed the fitness tests before making his ‘debut’ on February 23 when officiating at Carlow vs Antrim in Glenavy.

That one finished a draw and he was looking forward to more assignments when it all came to a sudden halt.

“Since January, we were into the National League and then in late March, all of a sudden the whole thing came crumbling down,” was how he described it when The Anglo-Celt caught up with him last week.

No matches doesn’t mean a complete break for the men in the middle. Far from it; there’s no rest for the wicked (literally, in the eyes of some supporters, but we will get to that later)…

“Currently, during the lockdown period, Croke Park have issued all national panel referees with the use of a fitness app to monitor and support us all with different aspects of training.

“Our fitness coach, Aidan Brady, who looks after all the national panel referees, has designed a training session for each individual referee with warm-up exercises to long distance running plans to be used in whatever way each referees feels fit.”

Three evenings a week, Dourneen togs out, hits ‘go’ on the app and pounds the roads, averaging between five and 10 kilometres each time. Before the lockdown, he did most of his training in the gym and had found himself settling into a routine into which he could comfortably fit work and sport. Covid changed all that so, like the footballers he shares a pitch with, he had to improvise.

Run times are inputted to the app and downloaded at HQ. If there’s a sense that Big Brother is watching, that’s because he is – but in this case, there’s no mistrust. The atmosphere among the refereeing fraternity in general, and the powers that be in HQ, is warm and respectful.

“Currently every Thursday, Croke Park have been facilitating an online video call with all national referees, being led by National Referees Manager Donal Smyth.

“Each week one topic is debated from communication with players, teamwork with other officials along with many more. Croke Park have also recently included our umpires on a session last week which I felt along with everyone on the the panel was a brilliant idea, our umpires and the support and commitment they show to us all individually is incredible and to be honest it goes unnoticed the majority of the time.”

The fact that the training is being monitored is a plus too.

“It’s great for the mental health, you have to get out. There are times when you’d be out running the roads and you might say ‘to hell with this’ but 90pc of the time you go out, do what you have to do, clear the head.”

When we spoke to him, there was no light at the end of the tunnel (“You have to keep up your fitness because you are hoping that we do get back to games before the end of the year. There are 40 on the hurling panel and 40 on the football panel and all of us would be keeping up our fitness levels in the hope that whenever football returns, inter-county or club, you’d be hoping to be back in some way before the end of the year.”) but all of that has now changed.

Dourneen was hopeful of being handed more National League games prior to the shutdown. In the longer term, he hopes to make the elite championship panel.

“Your first year on the national panel, going by conversations with Joe McQuillan and Noel Mooney, they would have been telling me you definitely would get three, maybe four at a push, National League games but unfortunately it was brought to an end with one game for myself.

“The 40 National League panel referees would be brought down to 14 last year for the 2019 championship panel. Realistically, for myself going forward, with my current position as being one of the 40 national panel football referees, which on a personal note for me is incredible at 27, I would be looking at the championship panel.

“This panel is then usually brought down to around 13 or 14 referees for the championship. To gain a place on this would take a period of time I would expect, all I can do is to do my very best with every appointment I receive and then with following regular advisor reports and then guidance from national personnel in Croke Park, I hope maybe one sunny summer to get the call up to the championship panel.

“There are different stages you have to go through, there are a certain amount of games say in Division 3 and Division 2 that you have to referee before you get the opportunity to join the national championship panel.”

Dourneen has had a ‘have whistle, will travel’ approach since beginning around 10 years ago. He served his time at underage and in blitzes, all along acquiring experience and confidence.

“Around 2013, Cavan county board put me forward on to the Ulster panel, it was called the Ulster Academy that time. I went through two years of that, attending seminars and refereeing development squad blitzes, bits and pieces like that. Then in November 2015 I graduated straight from the Ulster Academy on to the Ulster provincial panel so from then I have been on the Ulster panel.

“From then, I was also put on to the national support panel which would be back-up officials, fourth official, sideline official in National League games and I would have got a few appointments that way. Then I would have umpired for the likes of David Coldrick, Joe McQuillan, David Gough, Barry Cassidy, those guys, and got more experience from that.

“In 2015 I refereed the intermediate final which was a massive appointment for me, Ballyhaise and Arva. Then I did the 2016 U21 final. Then with the Ulster provincial panel I refereed McKenna Cup fixtures, U20 championship games, minor championship games… I did the Ulster senior football league final between Ballinderry and Kilcoo just back in March of 2019.

“There’s a criteria, Croke Park would be looking for referees to have certain games done at a certain level within Ulster and then within Cavan to be on the national panel itself.

“In 2018, I refereed the U20 championship semi-final between Derry and Down and then last year I refereed the opening round game between Down and Antrim which was played as a curtain raiser to the Ulster final between Cavan and Donegal.

“I would have been assessed at great length on those games, they were high profile games as such and both games went extremely well. At that level, U20 and minor, they are nice games to do because they are footballing games.”

All along, he has been accompanied by a loyal cadre of umpires.

“Padraig McCabe from Ballinagh has been with me since day one, from I first started reffing at club level. He was coaching with Ballinagh at the time. Gerry Sheridan from Mullahoran as well, Martin Brady from Lacken and Tomás O’Keeffe from Drumalee have been with me for the last three years as well. Jimmy Galligan from Killygarry and Mickey Lee would step in from time to time too.

“It’s hugely important to have that panel of umpires and it’s good fun with the lads too.”

That element is an overlooked part of the whole business.

“I’m lucky enough that I am more or less the same age as a lot of lads I’m refereeing and younger still than some of them. There is a bit of banter. From booking lads, the procedure is you have to ask the player their name… A lad might say to me ‘sure you know my name, Conor’. There is a human side to it, of course, you have to have a bit of fun as well.”

Dourneen’s biggest breakthrough came in 2018 when he was handed the Cavan Senior Championship final. That it ended up a classic of the genre – Castlerahan coming from six down to edge Crosserlough out by a point – adds to the memory.

“To get the call…” he recalls. “That was a huge step forward for me. The year before, it was in the back of my mind the year before that I was getting games in the club championship which were high profile enough but I didn’t get it, I was appointed as standby referee for that game between Cavan Gaels and Castlerahan which was actually a hell of a tough game to referee, Gerry Sheridan refereed it.

“But when I got the call in 2018, it was fantastic. It’s the ultimate fixture in your county that you can referee and please God I’ll get the opportunity to referee another few of them.

“It’s the game every referee in Cavan wants, there’s only one man can do it every year. It’s an incredible buzz, to be out in the middle of the field with your four umpires who have been with you for all those games.

“In the lead-up to that final, I did Cavan Gaels and Castlerahan in New Inns on a Friday evening. The game finished a draw and after that match, I actually had the feeling that everything went well and maybe it could be my year to get the county final.

“The game went well, the 30 lads played football. They know me, I know them, they know what they’re going to get and vice versa. I just had an idea that I may have had a chance.

“I did the senior quarter-final, Crosserlough and Ramor over in Crosskeys, and that got me the final that year. I didn’t get any semi-finals.

“It wouldn’t be a written rule as such that the final referee doesn’t get a semi-final but it would be intended to sort of keep you away from clubs, to give you the best opportunity in the final. Nine times out of 10, one of the four referees who do the senior quarter-finals would get the senior final.

“That’s the way it has been the last few years in Cavan and it would be the same in the All-Ireland, it’s generally one of the Super 8s referees who would get the final and not get a semi-final.”

Without doubt, refereeing is a thankless job. What is the attraction?

“Referees hate to get decisions wrong, all any referee wants to do is their very best, Believe me, every referee is their own worst critic and we know very well when we’ve got something wrong!

“We are not machines, just look at when a player misses a free or an open goal or a manager makes a wrong positional change - each of these are not meant, likewise for the referee.

“What would I say to young people looking to get into it? It’s a fantastic opportunity to represent your club and maybe their county one day, for a young a person to develop their skills as a human being, bringing this skills into their future careers, making friends, and also the opportunity to gain promotion on to provincial and then maybe someday on to a place on the national panel.

“With support, advice and guidance from advisors, tutors and indeed referees’ administrators in your county and province, this is possible. Following all this support and guidance over the years paid off for me when I was appointed to the 2018 Cavan senior final at 25 years of age.

“I think Joe McQuillan was 25 when he did his first Cavan senior final so I’m doing well!”