RateTheRef

Quote from: DublinRef on Thu 20 May 2021 15:52

Well in my opinion Neil Doyle is still the best FIFA referee.

Hennessey I would rate above Harvey. Harvey I think has a lot of issues in management and giving a good impression on the pitch in terms of body language and personality. I would be interested to see Hennessey's WCQ game if you have any clips?

And yes that is the same Damien MacGraith.

I like Doyle too, his style is quite elegant, but in general I don't think he had enough to progress past UEFA 2nd personally.

rgfootball doesn't have the game anymore so the best I can do is the Belarus FA's YouTube channel HL.

Penalty - youtu.be/sgWEfSwdJWw?t=94
SYC - youtu.be/sgWEfSwdJWw?t=238

I recalled the SYC being a dive! Shame on me. The SPA assessment was correct in that scene (which you can't fully see here)despite the deep position on the FoP.

The penalty however... to be fair, games between ex-Soviet teams are really difficult, normally a huge amount of rough play and yet rather little dissent which requires a law-enforcer approach from the first whistle, so I wouldn't crucify him or anything especially as a 1990-born.

I think Doyle on top form is good enough for first group. Whether he presented that level often enough is the question, on the whole I agree with you - probably falls between both categories and a top level second group official IMO. A shame he has not been appointed more in recent times in UEFA competitions and a shame he never got a EL GS game (seems unlikely that will happen now) nonetheless he has had a very good international career.

Many thanks for the video clips. SPA certainly seems supportable and I agree with you about the penalty.

It would be good to see another Irish referee have a similar trajectory to Alan Kelly however at present I must admit I don't see any of our current FIFA referees progressing beyond the 2nd group. Harvey and Hennessey could well prove me wrong and I hope they do but I feel they have a long way to go.