TWO CARLOW GAA match officials assaulted within a week? OK, it has happened before; all over the country, but this time it happened in Co. Carlow, and it must be viewed as a very worrying development by the administration in image terms and how Gaelic games are being run in the county.

The conduct of the two players, Eire Og's Eric McCormack and Tinryland Keith Williamson - not to mention a few who briefly came to grips on the sideline in one of those matches - is hardly helpful in the drive to recruit new referees who we are led to believe are in chronic short supply, understandable considering the regular verbal abuse several have had to endure from time to time, and not often, if ever, given major air-time at board meetings.

From 'word on the street' yesterday (Monday) it is believed that both were facing 96 weeks bans from the CCC, but they would have the option of appealing any ban to the Hearings Committee within three days of receipt of the suspension notices.

I have witnessed circumstances, as recently as last weekend, when referees, and a few minor officials too, have been subjected to directive abuse from the line and beyond, and made to feel uncomfortable leaving the arena, and often having to linger until the two teams reached the dressing rooms for fear of running an aggressive gauntlet.

Yet another was subject of some very low language at a junior match last week also.

The latest assaults have pointed the spotlight on the reluctance of others to volunteer for the most unwanted role in Irish sport.

The GAA is the only organisation which, in all its initiatives for presentational perfection, sideline control and sartorial splendour, has yet to win the same respect for match officials as its rugby counterparts, and ironically, in the provinces at least, many rugby players double as Gaelic players as well and would not dream (apart from the rare ibex) of stepping out of line in that code.

Then, understandable when for all the threats of suspension et al, the association has never addressed the culture of foul language, both between the lines and beyond. I cannot recall the issue ever tabled at board meetings, and God knows there has been some dreadful language used on both sides of the chalk.

Referee Pat Murphy became, what I believe was the first official in this county to red card a player for abusive (foul) language at a minor official in a senior football match recently, but then his colleagues permit, by lack of action, such language to be the accepted dialect normally.

One referee last weekend was subject of dreadful language last weekend yet did absolutely nothing about it. Perhaps the referees have something to talk about at their next meeting, no?

The European soccer authorities issued a warning to an Italian team last week that they would be severely punished if their supporters broke the racial-abuse code when facing Spurs, and threatened that if it should happen they would be playing their next game behind closed doors. Foul language is the closest crime we come to that in Gaelic games.

Imagine a Carlow club playing before none save their own officials for continued foul language, but then failure by the board to curb it merely gives the younger generation the permission to go the same route, and indeed it has worked its way into teenage games also and again generally without rebuke.

The GAA (in Dublin that is) was loud in his launch of the code of conduct many years ago, a chapter in which was devoted to 'respect.' Foul language is showing lack of respect for officials and opponents, and unfortunately it is now in such general use that it is the given way to vent frustration. Let's see how many referees will follow the Pat Murphy line.

Then how often is verbal abuse not actually at the referee or opponents, but a result of the failure of their own to perform, and of course what player or supporter is prepared to slag off or abuse their own.

But back to the assaults, and doubtless the public will watch the Hearing Committee's response to what many expect will be appeals from the two suspended players given that one incident was in a high-profile game, though not that the status of a match has any bearing on the seriousness of any assault on an official. The result will score the committee's determination to eliminate violence which too often has been handled with a leniency which would not be tolerated in other codes.

Our deteriorating social behaviour is frequently blamed on the lack of parental supervision, so can we extend that reasoning to clubs, some of which are mighty slow to chastise their own, with too many comforting arms wrapped around the shoulders of those who are red-carded for violence.

What clubs whose players seriously cross the line will condemn them to the bleachers with a match on the horizon? Did we see a red-carded player receive a trophy this season, and do the rules not prohibit a suspended player from the function?

Perhaps GAA clubs will (although it goes against the grain to take any plus points from rival codes) pay attention to how the Carlow Rugby Club handled a player who remonstrated with a referee. They banned him for a year and before the Leinster Branch handed down a six month suspension. Do we know of any club which has suspended its own before CCC consideration?

Sure, Carlow does not have any monopoly on excellent referees, but then do clubs/fans abuse those who miss or concede scores with the same venom they direct when they consider their own team treated unfairly?

The county board cannot continue to expect new referees to sign on until it is seen to take serious punitive against those who threaten its officials, and indeed admonish clubs for unacceptable language towards match officials. And here the line and goalpost officials have a duty to protect their own. The CCC decision recently has certainly shown errant players the red card and taken a major step towards assuring match officials that they will be respected, if not by players then by the CCC.

One aspect of the debate is that young players and fans must see justice to be done, and that abuse and foul language will not be tolerated in Gaelic games which have yet to establish rugby's culture of respect for officials and they err just as often.

- Paul Donaghy