'It's highly enjoyable doing Mayo championship games' says referee John Glavey

Meet five people who’ve been at the beating heart of a Mayo club championship weekend.

Part three:

Name: John Glavey

Role: Referee

The text normally comes out the week before, so you know where you’re going and what teams you’re reffing. You contact the umpires to see who is available. Then in the lead up to it, drink lots of water if you can - less pints!

I’d have a few carbohydrates the day before, but I’m not too big into sport science or anything like that.

The day before a match I’m working away, maybe doing a bit of coaching with my child’s U-10 team, so it’s only the day of the match that I start thinking about it.

I like to be at a game at least an hour beforehand. Being early means you can relax, have a cup of tea, talk to your umpires just to get a feel for the ground, but it’s mainly to make sure if you’ve a flat tyre you’re not late.

I’m living in Claremorris, so the furthest I’d drive to a game would be an hour. I am an East Mayo referee so generally I won’t be reffing East Mayo teams, but most grounds are within a 45-50 minute drive.

In relation to preparation it’s just to make sure you bring two jerseys in case of a clash with the teams.

James Regan from Hollymount/Carramore, who is also a referee, has done a bit for me in the past, or Mike King, Tom Hickey or my brother Colin. We try and travel together so we can relax and talk about what potentially might happen and the likes. It’s all very casual but we approach it in a nice low-key manner but with an air of professionalism thrown in as well.

I know some refs who mights be running and stretching for half an hour before a game but I have my own system. Generally, I just do a bit of stretching and get straight into the game. So far it has served me well. I don’t really get injured that much, thank God.

It can be a bit tricky to do two games in one day, particularly if you’re doing line at the first game. That happened me a few years ago on a very cold day and it was hard to get moving properly to ref the second game.

In Mayo, you could do a 10k in a match. Doing that, two days in a row, you are definitely going to feel it on a Monday. You’d be mentally exhausted after it, especially if a game doesn’t go according to plan. You might get it in the lug. But I’m so long at it now that the physical exertions are not too bad, in fairness

For a while we were in Covid and nobody had games and it was absolutely horrible. It’s great to be back doing it properly in the last couple of years and it’s highly enjoyable doing Mayo championship games, in fairness.