Four-time All-Ireland referee Brian Gavin has called on whistlers to be given more of a voice to help counteract inaccurate interpretation of the rules in the media.
The GAA policy is for referees not to give interviews after matches and not to discuss controversial incidents.
But Gavin, who recently retired from taking charge of inter-county games, feels that the men in the middle should be heard in order to clear up confusion.
"Referees are genuine fellahs just like anyone else involved; the players, the reporters, the same as anyone. They don’t go out of their way to do harm," said the Offaly man, speaking to RTÉ’s GAA Podcast.
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"I feel that there aren’t enough people out there who know all the rules or understand it and it’s the same with players and management.
"It would be nice if we did more, on the Sunday Game or on the radio, where we explained for five or ten minutes about refereeing and the rules."
Speaking about pundits, he said: "In fairness, those lads want to put the right side out on the Sunday Game and they have a tough job as well.
"But there was definitely some negative comment on the Sunday Game at times – seldom we get positive comments. You’d like to see ‘the referee did well’ too."
Gavin is only 40-years-old, ten years below the mandatory retirement age for inter-county referees set by Croke Park, but felt the time was right for him to call it quits.
"It wasn’t an easy decision and before Christmas I was attending all the Leinster sessions and moving fairly well," he explained.
"A little set-back over the Christmas, I had a bad flu and chest infection, and I knew the fitness test was coming up in January for the League. You’d want to be refereeing League games coming into the Championship so I was struggling a bit that way and my appetite was kind of going for the game.
"I talked to my father and my umpires and I was telling them the way I was thinking and I came up with the decision. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it’s one I made and one I’m very satisfied I made."
