Brian Gavin, Robert Harvey and Dudley Philips were the guests for The Saturday Panel for our special refereeing segment on Off the Ball this week.
The role of the men and women in the middle is always under scrutiny with decisions debated and analysed long after each event, regardless of the sport.
This week's panel was keen to emphasise the difficulties they face on a weekly basis while suggesting their needs to be a change in attitudes towards whistle blowers in Irish sport to encourage more people to take up the role.
Philips, the IRFU's head of refereeing was keen to point out that it's also the responsibility of the sports themselves to develop referees rather than passing the whistle to whoever's available on the sidelines on the day.
"I think one of the fears we have is that if clubs are put under too much pressure to provide referees, they'll throw names - we have to get the right people to take up the whistle regardless of the code," he told Nathan.
"And, it is an obligation of each of the codes to correctly educate them so that they are going out at an appropriate level to referee the game that they're refereeing in a safe and successful manner."
The drop-put rate among the sports is another worry across the board, especially in football, with Harvey, pointing out: "In soccer, the majority of referees who give up, do so in the first six months. I don't know the statistics but it's retention (where the problem is)"
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