Referees officiating across NNSWF Premier Senior and Youth competitions, along with community Zone Football League matches, are well prepared for the season ahead after attending NNSWF’s State Referee Conference pre-season seminars.
Almost 250 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, premier youth referees, premier senior competition referees and Zone Football League competition referees.
Amongst the guest presenters were Football Australia Community Referees Manager Daniel Goodwin, NNSWF General Manager Referee Growth and Development Brad Carlin, NNSWF Metro Referee Education and Development Coordinator Riley Kirkaldy and Referee Operations Officer Callum Hewitt.
The seminars covered educational refereeing topics including changes to the Laws of the Game such as eight second goalkeeper release, dropped ball, penalty kick – double touch, 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 Department.
Goodwin was thrilled to connect with NNSWF referees and educate them on what Football Australia wants to see.
“It’s a great opportunity for us at Football Australia to attend these events to share what we’re doing internally,” Goodwin said.
“It’s also important to update everyone across the country on changes to the Laws of the Game to make sure they’re consistent and they know what we’re looking for within our referees.”
Carlin was pleased with the outcome of the weekend and believed all NNSWF referees are ready for the season ahead.
“The format of delivering separate seminars for our large and diverse referee group allows us to provide coaching and information tailored to their specific needs,” Carlin said.
“It’s an approach we have done over the past four years and once again it proved highly effective.
“These seminars are important as they prepare our referees for the start of each season. It gives us an opportunity to be able to educate the match officials on the changes to the laws of the game for the upcoming year and any changes to our local competition rules or expectations of them.
“Besides preparing our referees, it’s a great opportunity for our referees to network with fellow match officials and people that are coming into the game. It was particularly pleasing to see representation from every NNSWF Member Zone across the weekend.
“Thank you to Daniel Goodwin who’s travelled to Newcastle but also my team Riley Kirkaldy, Mark Carter, Callum Hewitt and Harrison Coleman for the amazing work they have done not only this weekend but the lead up to it.”