Referees who officiate on NNSWF Premier Senior and Youth competitions as well as community Zone Football League competitions are well prepared for the upcoming season after attending NNSWF’s State Referee Conference pre-season seminars.
Almost 200 referees attended the annual conference held at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on the weekend.
The event comprised of four half-day seminars, one for each of the four groups of referees who will officiate with NNSWF this season. This included first year referees, youth referees, premier senior competition referees and Zone Football League competition referees.
Among the guest presenters were Football Australia Experience and Engagement Lead – Community Refereeing Daniel Goodwin, A-League Men’s and FIFA Assistant Referee and NNSWF Head of Referee Coaching Ryan Gallagher, NNSWF Referees Manager Brad Carlin and NNSWF State Referees Committee Chair Rodney Allen.
The seminars covered educational refereeing topics including changes to the Laws of the Game such as clarification of the changed interpretation to the offside law, player safety, foul severity, tactical fouls, dealing with inappropriate behaviour in the technical area, interaction between match officials including the use of communication equipment and general updates from the FA and NNSWF Referee Departments.
“The format of holding separate seminars for our large and diverse group of referees so that we could give them coaching and information relevant to their different needs is something that we started last year and it worked exceptionally well again,” Carlin said.
“All of our referees at the conference received first class technical education, preparing them well for the new season.
“The seminars also provided a great opportunity for our referees to meet in a social environment and learn from each other.”
NNSWF Interim CEO Peter Haynes said the success of the conference was a strong indicator of where the governing body was placed in terms of its match officials.
“This conference is hugely important because it is expected all our referees are across the Laws of the Game and it was fantastic that we had all our Member Zones represented and Football Australia in attendance,” Haynes said.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback from our referees regarding how good this year’s conference was and it is important we continue to support our match officials in terms of their education and development.
“Congratulations to Brad and his team and thank you to all our special guests as well as our fantastic match officials. We would not have a game without them.”
