I had a bit of spare time on my hands and went through statistics on this season's League of Ireland refereeing.
In the Premier Division there have been 12 different referees across the 77 matches played. They have issued a total of 358 Yellow Cards, 8 red cards for a second booking (only counted as one yellow in the 358 total) and 12 straight red cards.
This is an average of 53 booking points per match (10 per yellow, 25 per red)
Rob Harvey and Damien McGraith have both refereed 11 matches with Paul McLaughlin (10), Rob Hennessy (9) and Neil Doyle (8) the next most used.
Neil Doyle has the highest average 'points per game' at 64.4 with 44 yellows, two reds for a 2nd booking and one straight red card issued.
Sean Grant had the highest individual match with 140 points in Drogheda v Rovers (9 yellows and two 2nd booking reds).
On the "easy" side Kevin O'Sullivan has just issued 11 yellow cards in the three matches he has refereed for a total of 36.7 points per game but obviously not all games are the same and Kevin is a referee who has also refereed in Division 1 but is seemingly being "promoted" to the Premier so has been given less intense fixtures on paper.
The are a couple of referees going the other way though - Arnold Hunter, who had previously refereed in the Northern Irish League, and been on the UEFA panel, has refereed 6 Premier Division games this season and issued 27 yellows, one red for a 2nd booking and three straight red cards - the only other referee to have issued four red cards is Damien McGraith but that was across 11 matches.
Last weekend Arnold Hunter was refereeing his first Division 1 match between Longford and Treaty and ended up with 6 yellows, one 2nd booking and one straight red!
Ray Matthews after having refereed 4 Premier games this season has recently been refereeing in Division 1 and is slated down for Cobh v Athlone this weekend.
As with Kevin O'Sullivan it looks like both David Dunne and Eoghan O'Shea are referees being "promoted" to the Prem from the first - interesting I think Eoghan O'Shea is a former player with Athlone Town too.
Into Division 1 and there have been 21 referees used across the 70 matches with an average of 54.9 booking points per game (359 yellows, 7 reds for a 2nd booking and just 3 straight red cards).
Paul Norton and Alan Patchell have both refereed 7 matches and Patchell is the most prolific referee in the whole league with an average of 89.3 points per match! He has issued 55 yellow cards, two reds for a second booking and one straight red card. When he refereed Bray v Treaty recently it featured a division high 135 points (11 yellows and one 2nd booking!)
Gavin Colfer has an average of just 30 points from his 6 matches (18 yellow 0 reds).
Other Leagues around Europe this season:
Premier League: 38.4
English Championship: 41.4
Serie A: 48.2
La Liga: 57.9
Bundesliga: 42.8
Ligue 1: 39.0
Portuguese Liga: 61.7
Dutch Eredivisie: 31.8
Turkish SuperLig: 51.3
Scots Prem: 46.5
Obviously huge variance here but LoI clearly on the upper end.
I phoned the speaking clock to hear a voice speak, it said - "At the tone you will be very much alone"
Class work, punters will greatly appreciate it. On Arnold Hunter, he's been a dreadful addition to the league for someone with such a strong CV. So rash with his decision making.Originally Posted by JC_GUFC
BetweenTheStripes.net - Home of Between the Stripes LOI podcast.
After last week's match in Cork it's probably no surprise to learn that Sean Grant is now top of the average bookings points per games list at 63.1 points from his 8 matches, just marginally ahead of Neil Doyle's 62.8
Gavin Colfer will take charge of a Premier Division match for the first time this weekend - UCD v St Pat's - he was refereed 7 matches in Division 1 this season average a league low 34.3 points per game.
He will become the 13th referee to take charge of a Premier Division match this season.
Now there could be a few issues such as injury or unavailability but a couple of referees who haven't had a match recently are
Adriano Reale: last match 1st May (Bohs v Cork) - he's been on 4th official duty every week since.
Arnold Hunter: last Prem match 15th April (Sligo v Drogheda) - 13th May refereed Longford v Treaty in Division 1 - no involvement of any sort since then.
I phoned the speaking clock to hear a voice speak, it said - "At the tone you will be very much alone"
Seven reds & thirty seven yellow across the two divisions tonight, the majority of both in D1, with six of the seven reds coming there.
Stephen Kenny Saviour, Leader, Winner, An Autobiography - In All Good Bookstores Now
No reds in FP but by god some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen. Attrocious for both teams. Kerry a surprisingly cynical team
3 red cards for players and one for Hendo in Athlone tonight.
As bad a refereeing performance I've ever seen.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Ref in dalymount tonight was good I felt, missed a stonewall home peno but we won so I’ll take it!! Overall he was unfussy and let it flow , have him back anytime really
What would Sean Grant's average points be if you only count the games he has refereed that feature Shamrock Rovers?
I'm not really asking you to look into that but I'd assume most of his points have been "earned" in the two games he reffed us this season.
Last edited by ontheotherhand; 03/06/2023 at 3:42 AM.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
Very low counts in the Prem last night. Most was 4 yellows in Bohs v Sligo while Rovers v Dundalk was 45 points (2 yellows & 1 red).
Rob Hennessy didn’t have any bookings in Derry v Shels which was a first for a match in either Division.
I wonder did something come from last week’s meeting.
On refereeing appointments, Sean Grant is down for Shels v Drogheda on Monday, so presumably assessor was satisfied with his match in Cork.
Adriano Reale has been appointed to Galway United v Finn Harps while Ray Matthews is down for Treaty v Wexford (most recently reffed Pat’s v Dundalk) so it looks like a demotion for both.
I don’t know if anyone finds this useful but the “nothing happens to refs” argument is kind of dispelled at least.
Only speculation of course but I’m not sure we’ll see Arnold Hunter again this season.
Paul McLaughlin did a professional job in the Rovers dundalk game last night.
There wasn't a bad challenge in the match(same as cork last week (, the red card was justified as Finner was last man back, and he let the game flow as it should - that's all football people and fans ask for.
Not should we see Hunter again, level of performance has been atrocious since he came across to LOI but then again have the FAI got the depth in the pool to be able to keep refs on the sidelines for long periods I'm not so sure.
It’s strange that Hunter would move from NIFL to LoI. Maybe he’s moved for work reasons or something.
I think it’s a positive that referees who perform well in Division 1 such as Colfer and Eoghan O’Shea (who did Bohs v Sligo) are promoted to Premier games.
I do think the players’ attitude towards referees can also lead to extra cards.
Hopefully the “clear the air” meeting during the week had some sort of impact, maybe it just happened that there weren’t any fiercely contested matches. Monday might tell more - there are only 2 referees who will have refereed both last night and again on Monday.
Ref at dalier last night, Eoghan o shea, was excellent. Let it flow when he could, wasn’t fooled by play acting and got on with it , breath of fresh air.he did manage to miss an absolutely stonewall penalty when coote was flattened in the box but nobody’s perfect but he had a great game.
meeting?
BetweenTheStripes.net - Home of Between the Stripes LOI podcast.
I thought Gavin Colfer did quite well last night in the UCD Pats game. One or two free kicks that I disagreed with but if that’s all you have to complain about with a ref in this league you’re doing well! It should be noted that it was probably quite an easy game to referee though with next to no bite in that UCD team and no major decisions to be made/get wrong
Paaatrick's Agletic
I could be wrong but I thought there was a reported meeting of referees and some club/player representatives last week.
Maybe I dreamt that!
I phoned the speaking clock to hear a voice speak, it said - "At the tone you will be very much alone"
Yeah it’s no coincidence which matches the “promoted” referees are put in charge of.
Any match can “kick-off” with a bad tackle but certain sets of players and managers are easier to deal with than others.
No you're right but it was the week before last. Not sure if anything positive came from it....we played Cork after the meeting.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
One appointment to note for this weekend.
Robert Dowling will take charge of Longford v Finn Harps. It will be his first refereeing appointment of the season.
I phoned the speaking clock to hear a voice speak, it said - "At the tone you will be very much alone"
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