Thought I would chuck in a thread about refereeing, we used to have one ages ago but I couldn’t find it.
Did a game today and it was terrible, 27 degrees and full sun. Isn’t it almost winter?
Three weeks into the new season for me and it’s been going well, plenty of goals, a few yellow cards.
I had a good one today, a player had given away 4 fouls and I told him that he needed to stop or he would be getting a card.
I told my assistants that he will get a card quickly here, you can guarantee he will clean someone up soon, 3 minutes into the second half and bang.
Here’s your card.
Still enjoying it, wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it again but I’m glad I signed up this season.
I’ve not had games since the first weekend due to washouts. Would happily take a couple of weeks of 27 degree days right now.
I got roped into playing again though. only 4th Div so fair to expect that we’re not going to get the best referees, or any at all for that matter. Both of our games over the last 2 weekends have gone ahead.
The referee last weekend was terrible, a real homey ref to the point he showed up to the pub with the team we played. Mind you, if he wasn’t doing the job then I don’t think you’d ever get a referee in Pottsville.
We had a “green shirt” today, an initiative where new referees where a green shirt rather than the usual referee shirt that indicates to those playing and watching that they’re new to the job. It’s been quite successful in reducing the amount of abuse they receive and most players generally help them out with decisions if they’re unsure. Not sure if anyone has come across this in other associations?
It wasn’t a difficult game but he did really well for someone only having their 4th game. It was his second match for the day on a bog track and he was keeping up with play right until the end. There’s guys with a lot more experience who are a lot worse, that’s for sure.
We are in Northern NSW so have the green shirts as well.
Apparently we are the only zone in NNSW to have increased their referee numbers this year.
All of our games have been covered so far this season with 3 refs.
All our young referees seem super keen. A few of our promising young guys (17-18 year olds) are going down to Newcastle and doing centres for NPL youth games and AR for NPL1.
I’d love to have a crack at NPL but I think I’m too old to get on the list now.
Our numbers have dropped right off to the point that some Premier League games aren’t fully covered.
The senior referees are mostly still here but, much like in the playing ranks, numbers took a real hit after the floods.
We just need a season or 2 that are uninterrupted. 2 COVID hit seasons and now the floods, people just aren’t committing due to the uncertainty and others are pulling out due to the travel. For example, today at Lennox Head there were 5 senior games. 3 of them were Lismore teams playing other Lismore teams. It was a 4 hour round trip for me last weekend and a 3 hour one today. That’s fine for me but when it’s parents having to take their kids to run lines it’s not really going to work.
Not harm in asking about getting on the NPL panel. If it’s something you want to do then I’m sure they’ll at least entertain the idea if you get a push from your local association. Hopefully they let you skip TOP camp!
Yeah that’s pretty brutal. Not surprising that it’s going like that. Hopefully it starts to get better.
It’s one thing that makes it easy here, 99% of games are in Tamworth.
Northern inland used to include armidale and that area but they left a couple of years ago.
I don’t think they take people for NPL lists once you reach a certain age, they only try and bring through younger guys to develop them.
Although there’s been factors well outside of FFNC’s control 6hat have seen the reduced numbers this year, moving forward, I think the travel is something they will have to address in the near future.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves a good bus trip but it’s getting to the point where you could do one every couple of weeks. I think the answer is having a North & South conference style competition outside of the top 3 divisions but that could still have issues around competition integrity/fairness.
Just as an indication of the travel involved, in Prems you’ve got a team from Maclean and a side from Mullumbimby.
In our division we have Woodburn who have to travel to Ocean Shores & Pottsville (and vice versa).
In div 7 you have Kyogle, Woodburn & Ocean Shores.
Given the price of fuel and the condition of the roads, it’s just adding to the cost of participation.
We had heaps of rain last week and they moved the games to different fields and shuffled some around and every game got played.
They knew the weather on Saturday was going to be sunny so they gave it a go.
I’m marking our ground for the first time this season tomorrow. It’s wet but providing we don’t get anymore rain we should get to play on Saturday. It’s our second field, the main field is still a good month away, and in a normal season we only use it for training, the river is only 10-15m away at the closest point, but desperate times and all of that. Pretty sure it’s going to be used every weekend now.
I think we’re the only ground open in Lismore this weekend.
I refereed a game at private school a few weeks ago.
The soccer field is slightly down the hill from the rugby field so it got all the drainage from the rugby field.
