New referee jersey proving very popular among Cork officials

While there have been quite a few clubs on Leeside receive a new jersey this year, the referees also received new gear which arrived ahead of the start of the Cork County Championships back in July.

The Cork referees committee was officially set up in 2022, two years after work first began to get it off the ground, and one thing they aren’t doing is leaving the grass grow under their feet. They are constantly trying to improve the standards which is underlined by the fact that Cork became the first county in Ireland to host an umpires course in June.

At the club championship matches this season, it’s now very easy to pick out the referee in their distinctive new gear. The equipment manager of the Cork referees committee Jamie Lane from the Dungourney club, talks about why now is the right time for the change of jerseys.

“We have 16 members on the Cork referees committee and we are all working on different areas,” he says.

“My main role would be equipment so in terms of communication gear, boards and flags, that kind of stuff. We discussed getting a new jersey for Cork refs in 2022 and we went to the Cork County Board about it and in fairness to them, they approved it. In terms of a time scale, the board committed to supply the referees a new jersey for 2024, they have committed to a half zip top for 2025 and the following year, we will receive a gear bag. 

“There is gear for referees, I think Masita do it. But, what I definitely have noticed since I came into this role as equipment manager was that there was nothing to clearly distinguish Cork referees. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted an official Cork jersey for referees to be worn at Cork games.” 

The new jersey does stand out with the red strip an eye-catching feature. It has proved to be a big hit so far.

“When you look at how big of a county Cork is and the range of different colours that clubs have, we had to get our thinking caps on,” Lane said.

“Getting the correct design was so important. First and foremost, having the Cork crest on the jersey was key. Then it was all about coming up with a design that referees would wear at 90 percent of games. There was no point having a jersey that would clash with a couple of different clubs. We wanted the jersey to be worn and to be seen. With the help of O’Neills, they guided us and it resulted in a black jersey which was always the main colour of a referee jersey. We then added the red collar and the red stripes along the shoulder and then added the Cork crest.

“We have 117 referees currently on the referees panel. They were all very appreciative of the new jersey. Teams have their own jerseys and that’s what we wanted to do with the Cork referees. The Cork referees committee has only been in operation for two years and we wanted to make our own impact and you see that with the number of things that we have done so far.” 

The Cork referees committee is made up of 16 members including referee administrators from each division with Niall Barrett, the county referees administrator, being chairman of the committee.