STOP *"!%~* SWEARING

I was at a shinty match recently with my young child.
As we left the game, an eight-year-old voice piped up from the back of the car: "They were saying a lot of swears today, dad, weren't they?".
The words, from one so young, made me angry.

I was bloody furious.

I drove away thinking: "What right have a bunch of young eejits got to use such foul language and behaviour as we'd just witnessed, in front of children. In front of any spectator - young, old or in-between, in fact?"

"Ach, they're just being silly," was the dad's reply - struggling for the right words.

Calming down, I got to thinking about the behaviour of the modern player on the shinty pitch.
I played for 20 and more years. I had my share of tantrums. I witnessed my share of hissy fits on the field of play.
But I reckon that the level of petulant display and sheer loss of self-control on display on shinty fields up and down the land is - by and large - worse now than ever before.

Now, don't get me wrong. I know that there are times when the blood can just boil during a game. There are decisions that don't go your way. Worse than that, there are referees that simply should be left to referee hockey or whatever sport they understand  - 'cos shinty it ain't.

But leaving aside the undeniable fact that the referee's job is a very difficult one - and accepting the equally unarguable fact that every ref will make mistakes, no matter how excellent otherwise - there is quite simply no excuse for the childish petulance that is becoming an unwelcome spectacle at many (most?) shinty games in the 21st century. I see players shouting - no, screaming - at referees, at goal judges, at linesmen...at spectators.

Almost as bad if not worse, I have seen coaches hurling abuse at all of the above and at rival coaches and officials. And, to add a bit of spice, the spectators regularly offer a sour wee sideshow highlighted by foul-mouthed abuse at the opposition.

Again, there is nothing new in winding up opponents. I had an uncle who was sent off by a referee for 'abusing' him. He was standing watching the game.

Aye, alright, he was a goal judge at the time. And that's a true story that happened more than 30 years ago.

Anyway, my point is that players' behaviour is getting beyond a joke. Why should I stop taking my children to games to avoid  exposing them to disgusting language and antics, and pathetic, aggressive behaviour?

I have seen players shouting in refs' faces. I have witnessed cowardly and sneaky off-the-ball antics.

Pathetic behaviour, and child-like nonsense, in my view. And it happens at all levels of the game.

Why?

Is it a reflection of society? I suspect that it does stem from a general reduction in our ability to control our behaviour. Someone suggested to me recently that it was indicative of a general society-wide vulgarisation. They added that we should think ourselves lucky - shinty players' standard of behaviour remains the height of decorum in comparison to that seen at under-thirteen football matches these days.

Where will it end, though? Players throwing themselves around like Cristiano Ronaldo on speed screaming with expletives every two minutes for supposed fouls? Will games become unreferee-able? (not a word, but you get my drift).

I would like to think that shinty folk could retain a degree of dignity. Shouting at the ref has always gone on. Please, though, let's keep shinty matches in perspective.

We all love the game. But that's all it is - a game. There is no need for all the infantile tantrums.

The old-school shinty players said little, and let their actions speak for themselves.

And they were anything but silly.