As the 2023 GAA All-Ireland senior hurling championship gets set to throw in, we take a look at the referees who will monitor the action.
James Owens is by some distance the most experienced of the 11 inter-county referees currently slated for championship action this summer.
Fergal Horgan had also been listed among the whistlers but he has since stepped away due to a lack of appointments during the league.
Askamore clubman Owens made his inter-county panel debut in 2004, with Paud O’Dwyer and Colm Lyons next involved from 2011 onwards.
The freshest name on the list belongs to Michael Kennedy of Newcastle and Tipperary, who first made it to this level in 2020.
The GAA doled out the games rather evenly to their referees last year, with five men getting four championship appearances and the remainder being fixed for three.
In terms of county breakdown, Galway (Liam Gordon and Shane Hynes) and Dublin (Sean Stack and Chris Mooney) both have two involved.
Meanwhile it’s one each for Carlow (O’Dwyer), Wicklow (John Keenan), Wexford (Owens), Cork (Lyons), Limerick (Johnny Murphy), Waterford (Thomas Walsh) and Tipp (Kennedy).
