Diary of an All-Ireland Final referee

Sarsfields' Brendan Cawley became the seventh Kildare man to referee the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final when he took charge of the Kerry V Donegal game in Croke Park on the last Sunday in July and during the week he relived the experience with The Kildare Nationalist. 

The call came on the Monday after the semi-finals, two weeks before the Final and was confirmed by letter on the following day. 

“Donald Smith, our Match Officials manager in Croke Park rang me and gave me the good news, which was brilliant. Once the news broke then on Tuesday it was just a whirlwind. There was a huge amount of positive good wishes messages, a lot of delight and pride from people from Newbridge, Sarsfields and Kildare.” 

Cawley’s initial reaction was one filled with emotion he told us. 

“There was a lot of emotion as it was like the pinnacle of a long career. I'm referring since February 2004 and 21 years is a long, long journey to get here,” he reflected. 

“I rang each one of my umpires to tell them, I told my wife, Rebecca, told my parents, Ger and Siobhán and everyone was so, so proud and delighted.”

Cawley operates on a rotation system of four umpires from his team of six umpires and for the All-Ireland Final, so Dave Coady, Lee Moore, Johnny Farrell and Eoghan Fitzpatrick were the lucky four on this occasion. The other two umpires on the team were not left out on the day however as Paddy McDermott and Henry Barrett were in charge of the match officials kit in a Kit Van supplied by Joe Mallon Motors for the Final.

“The first week was very busy with a huge volume of correspondence, huge volume of calls, texts, messages from people, well-wishers from all over the county and Ireland and further than that,” he recalls. 

Gear had to be organised with O’Neills as well as new suits and Saturday evening wear, sponsored by Kildare GAA, Richie Whelan in Naas. 

“Richie is a great supporter of Kildare and of us,” the Sarsfields man said. 

“When I got married in 2019 I promised Richie that I would be back when I got an All-Ireland and I came back six years later,” the All-Ireland Final referee laughs. 

In the midst of all the logistics, fittings and correspondence Cawley had to maintain his own training manage his own diet.A meeting was held with Croke Park officials in Abbotstown on the Thursday before the game. 

“We were then in Castleknock Hotel from Saturday lunch time until the Monday preparing for the performance and then enjoying the post-performance celebrations,” he explained.

Everything went perfectly for Brendan Cawley and his team on the day and over the weekend. 

"On final day we met at 8,30am for breakfast. We packed the kit van around 9.30am with all the match kit and post-game wear for ourselves and our wives and partners. Myself and the eight officials and my father, Ger, went to Mass at 10 o'clock in Castleknock and then had a quick meeting to focus our minds. We were in Croke Park for one o’clock. The day went very quickly,” he added.

“I suppose the key thing for me is that I wanted to do my best for the two teams and I wanted to have no bearing on the outcome of the game. Luckily enough we had no bearing on the outcome of the game, and thankfully nobody was talking about us on the evening which is the best thing the referee can ever want,” Cawley said proudly.

He recalls the moment after the National Anthem as a special moment. 

“Just to know that we had got there, we had made it and we were about to throw in the ball for an All-Ireland Final,” the “Fear as Cill Dara” as President Michael D Higgins addressed him as, recalls emotionally.

During the game Cawley said he was always just focused on the next decision on the next call is correct, reacting to the next situation. 

“I suppose we were really comfortable maybe in the last two or three minutes and certainly once Joe O’Connor scored the goal we could enjoy the last 90 seconds, because I knew we would have no outcome on the game,” he continued.

It was an overwhelming sense of relief for the Kildare whistler at the end of the game. 

“It was very emotional with my four umpires who have done so much for me along the way. It was great to be able to be on the field and game was over and enjoy having a good job done.

There was no rest for the All-Ireland Final referee as three days later he was refereeing an U14 game in Kilcullen. 

“Look, it would be something that me and my senior colleagues would do to continue to get back to the grassroots. I started off 21 years ago refereeing underage games and no different to Wednesday tonight in Kilcullen, I refereed two sets of footballers that were just mad ball to play.

Did he enjoy the All-Ireland experience we asked Brendan Cawley finally.

“Absolutely, from start to finish,” was his quick reply. 

“It was everything I had dreamt of for years; we left no small stone unturned myself and my umpires. We wanted to look back at the year knowing that we couldn't have done any more and certainly we wanted to approach the game as if it was the only final we would ever do and treated it that way. We certainly thoroughly enjoyed it and we thoroughly enjoyed our Sunday night and Monday too. 

"I would like to thank my parents Ger and Siobhán as well as my wife Rebecca and daughters Jaime and Charley for all their support. Others who have supported me included Mick Fennin, Martin White, Martina Donnelly, Noel McKenna, Ger Arnold, Sarsfields club and Kildare GAA,” he concluded.