Five years ago, the GAA launched their Respect initiative, which looked to clamp down on the act of sledging among other things.

They also looked to take action against sledging when they made it a black card offense in 2014.

But it is a difficult thing for referees to pinpoint and eradicate and inter-county ref Maurice Deegan told Off The Ball that: "Players, in fairness, are not going to call one another names within the earshot of the referee because they know what's going to happen. If I'm running down the field, the players are going to be calling one another names 50 or 60 yards away and I can't turn around and on a whim and say when a player comes up to me and says 'look, he's been calling me names', I can't really do anything unless I've heard it myself or unless the linesmen or umpires have heard it."  

Deegan says it is something inter-county referees are being made aware of.

"It is a thing that is being pressed upon us, especially at inter-county level, to keep an ear out for that. But as I said, it's very hard thing to do when you're 30 or 40 yards down the field and all of a sudden two players start into one another."