WHAT'S that old saying?
Never ask someone to do a job you wouldn't do yourself."
Pat McEnaney might have disappeared from the middle of inter-county football, in terms of officiating at games at least, but those in Monaghan wouldn't have been surprised to see him pop up refereeing a MacRory Cup quarter-final on Tuesday afternoon.
After a phone call from Ulster Colleges' chairman Seamus Woods on Monday morning, McEnaney agreed to take charge of the dramatic replay between Omagh CBS and St Colman's, Newry in Emyvale.
He even had to award a last-minute penalty at the end of extra-time when St. Colman's Joe Morgan was fouled, though the subsequent penalty was saved.
The four-time All-Ireland final referee, and now head of the GAA's national referees committee, also continues to referee club games in the Farney county, something which he considers invaluable for his role in Croke Park. "Just because I've retired from inter-county doesn't mean I can't do club games or MacRory games. I could referee until I'm 70, though I won't," he jests. "It does help when you're managing a team of referees that you still know what you're talking about," said McEnaney.
He also managed to avoid using the black card during Tuesday's outing. The fear alone of the black card appears to have done its work in the early weeks of the season in terms of eliminating bodychecking, or the 'third man tackle', though the referees' chief is not getting carried away. "I wouldn't read too much into it yet. You've only had two rounds of the National League, the Sigerson Cup and the Railway Cup really. "I was at the McKenna Cup final, which was a good game for 35 minutes until Cavan had a man sent off for a black card, which was the correct call. "Bodychecking is the big one. I said at the time, before the rules were introduced, that players are bright people. They don't want to be sitting out, looking in at games. "Players are spending more time on tackling. You don't want bodychecking as part of the game. And a lot of the deliberate pull down tackles were lazy tackles, stupid tackles. "Bodychecking is cynical football. People say that we're taking the physicality out of football but if it's bodychecking that they're referring to, then they're right," he said.