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19th April 2023
03:51pm BST

8 April 2023; Referee David Coldrick during the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship quarter-final match between New York and Leitrim at Gaelic Park in New York, USA. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile[/caption]
Tipperary referee Derek O'Mahony also misses out on the same grounds, having failed to pass the bleep test. In order to be considered for the panel, referees are required to hit a score of 17.6 in the running drill, which sees them run 20 meters back and forth while keeping pace with a set of beeps which continually increase in pace.
Some are of the opinion that this sets too high of a bar, in that it discounts some of the best referees due to marginal deficits in their fitness and one of the big issues among referees is that they're not allowed to re-do these tests.
Going back a few years, Brian Gavin, one of the country's foremost hurling referees, missed out on some games due to the increasing fitness demands.
"Referees are covering between 10 and 12km (per game)," he said after his retirement.
Coldrick, 47, still has three more years before he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 50, which means that he could return in the years to come. Related links:“I think in the 2016 All-Ireland hurling final I covered 11km. I’d be a big broad fella and it would take a lot of work to get me fit but when I got fit I could maintain it.
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