Kildare referee to take charge of All-Ireland Football Final
Brendan Cawley will referee this year's All-Ireland Football Final between Donegal and Kerry Photo: ©INPHO/Evan Logan
Kildare referee Brendan Cawley, and his team of umpires, will take charge of the All-Ireland Football between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park on Sunday 27 July.
It is a culmination of many years of hard work for the Sarsfields man, who has long been regarded a potential All-Ireland Final referee.
It won’t be his first duty on All-Ireland Final day as he was linesman for the 2021 final between Mayo and Tyrone, and last year’s decider between Armagh and Galway. He has previously refereed All-Ireland semi-finals in 2022 between Derry and Galway and two years later he was the man in the middle for the game between Donegal and Galway.
This year, among many other games, he refereed the Ulster Final between Armagh and Donegal. He was handed the highest profile All-Ireland quarter-final between Armagh and Kerry and when he wasn’t involved in either of the two semi-finals it was clear that he was the front runner to take the whistle for the final, the ultimate accolade for any referee and his umpires.
Closer to home, his ties to his club Sarsfields and the Newbridge dominance of Kildare football meant he was forced to wait before finally taking charge of a county final in his home county for the first time in 2022, and he was in charge of the first final at the new Cedral St Conleths Park last year between Naas and Celbridge.
In a statement released to today, Kildare GAA paid tribute to amount of work put in for Cawley to reach this level.
“Anyone who knows Brendan, or has worked alongside him, will agree that this moment was always a matter of when, not if. His dedication, consistency, and composure have long marked him out as one of the very best in the game, and it is fitting that he now takes charge of this prestigious fixture.”
Cawley will become the fourth Kildare referee in modern times to take charge of a final, and the first since Mick Monaghan refereed the 2005 final between Kerry and Tyrone.
Before that, Tommy Howard was in charge of the 1993 final between Derry and Cork, while in 1978 Seamus Alridge became the first Kildare referee in almost 40 years to officiate a final when he refereed a famous clash between Kerry and Dublin.
