THE first texts John Bannon received on the drive back to Tullamore from Ballybofey a fortnight ago were ones of support. He was relieved because his gut feeling was that he hadn't been overly happy with his performance as Donegal had beaten Armagh and a few words of encouragement from some of his fellow referees were just what he needed to make the 170 miles home drive a little smoother. Before he made it, though, some other texts started arriving. By now, the Sunday Game panel had frame-by-framed the late Kevin Cassidy goal that had effectively decided the game and although nobody was dragging Bannon himself over the coals, the pictures suggested he'd come down on the wrong side of a square ball call. The rest of the road felt altogether more bumpy.

"By the time I got home, I was a bit cranky with myself, " he says. "But I sat down and looked at the video a few days later as I always do and to be honest, it's a 51/49 call. It was a high ball and there was a swirling wind and after looking at it a few times, you can just about say it was a square ball. But we had a referees' meeting in Athlone on Wednesday night and even there, not everyone was 100 per cent agreed on it."

Out of the spate of square ball decisions that have come along over the past few weeks to storm the early championship teacups, Bannon's has been the least clear-cut and had it come alone, nobody would be terribly concerned about it. But the combination of it, Padraic Berry's one that should have stood for Longford but didn't and Alan Brogan's one that shouldn't have for Dublin but did means that one of the game's least enforceable rules finds itself in the petri dish for a spell. No harm in that. Shortens the summer, after all.

The square ball rule - Bannon insists that it's a rectangle and while he's indubitably correct, well, dammit, rectangle ball just doesn't have the right ring to it - is one of those things in life that sounds better than it works.

Like communism. The theory behind it is perfectly fine - it was brought in to stop goalkeepers having 16-stone fullforwards standing on their toes from first whistle to last - but in practice, the idea of a mere human having the ability to freeze-frame the action at the point where a ball, a player and a white line intersect is wholly implausible.

Has been since forever. Interestingly, although its more famous cousin the soccer offside rule is just as ungovernable, it is to it that Bannon suggests we look for a solution.

"My rule of thumb - and this isn't the official rule but it would be the only way I can see of judging it - is that when a fella kicks the ball in, I check the square and if there's nobody there when the ball is kicked, I say fair enough, a man is entitled to go for it. It's such a borderline call and you have so many other things to be looking out for while the ball is in the air. To be truthful, even afterwards with a video, it's often impossible to tell whether the man or the ball made it into the square first.

"I think the only way to fix it is to modify the rule to make it like the offside rule in soccer where if you're outside the square when the ball is kicked, you're entitled to go in after it as long as you don't interfere with or foul the goalkeeper. That would be my proposal and I would say that possibly even some referees are using that at the moment."

At that referees' meeting in Athlone on Wednesday, only a small amount of time was spent discussing the rule.

Indeed, much more attention was given to the more serious problem of the growing number of head-high tackles in the championship. What they did discuss, however, was looking to firm-up what role, if any, umpires should play in proceedings. Not altogether surprisingly, the area here is a little grey.

"The rule says that an umpire can bring to the referee's attention incidences of rough play, dangerous play, striking, hitting, kicking or incursions not noticed by the referee. The problem is that although it doesn't say an umpire can bring a technical foul to the referee's attention, it doesn't say he can't either.

That's an area that I've often said should be cleared up and not just with umpires. I've often done linesman where a fella will be running towards me with his back to the referee and will pick the ball up off the ground. Now the rules say that in that situation, the linesman can't tell the referee about it. And meanwhile, you're there getting dog's abuse from the crowd because they've all seen it and they've seen that you've seen it too."

In the end, they decided to write to Central Council requesting clarification. And the summer moved along on its merry way.