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Published 08:06 9 Aug 2018 BST
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"The general feeling among a lot of the public - friends and, indeed, members of my own club and county and community - would have said that I had a very good chance of actually refereeing the final," he told national television. "It's hugely disappointing not to be involved."Whatever about the questionable decision to go public with those views, whatever about the apparent arrogance driving them in the first place, McGrath is threatening to take the attitude towards referees in a different direction entirely. Accountability. If he's happy enough to think like he thinks and appear on TV to vocalise how good him and his friends reckon he is, what's to stop the next ref being actually held accountable - and not for mistakes, but for blatant disregard of the rules? Why didn't you give a black card there when everyone else saw it? Why did you give the forward a yellow as well when he was being rode on the ground? What did you actually write in your notebook when you deemed a punch in the face worthy of only a caution? Why shouldn't they be hit with questions? Why not point out the skewed stats that helped change momentum? Why not hold these men to a higher standard if one of them at least is so competitive that he'll retire after 18 years because he didn't get a part in the big day? McGrath has obviously heaped pressure onto his former colleague James Owens now too whose performance refereeing the final will be looked at with much more intent than it might've been now. But he's changing the landscape before our eyes. Maybe referees took stick as it was but they've never really had to explain themselves for anything and they've never really been assessed - publicly at least - on their performance and in direct comparison with the rest of them. They will be over the next few weeks to start with. And they have James McGrath to thank for that. https://twitter.com/RTEgaa/status/1027248569772724224?s=09
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