Monday July 30th 2012

A collaborative initiative between Sport Gisborne and Central Football has been a huge success with 16 locals participating in a club based referee course and then gaining their Football Level 1 referee qualification.

The initiative came about after a meeting with Sport Gisborne’s Community Sport Team, Central Football Referee Development Officer David Lawrie and Central Football Development Officer Blake Mulrooney to discuss ways to improve sideline behavior by strengthening the infrastructure and quality of the sport by the recruitment and retention of referee’s.

“We used a Basketball model by recruiting junior representative players who have a sound knowledge of the laws and who are imbedded in the game. We sold them the concept by explaining that once you become a qualified referee you can earn money towards your football trips and ultimately it will make you a better player” said Noble.

Noble was also full of praise for the input of our local referee’s “ The delivery of the Club based referee course here by Ben Chisholm was great. It was visual, interactive, funny and his approach was tailored for young people. Consequently everyone passed the exam and was inspired to participate in the next step which was gaining their level one referee qualification with David Lawrie”

Central Football Development officer Blake Mulrooney can see a lot of positive benefits for football as a whole coming from this initiative” With the support of the Super League coaches we intend to introduce these new referee’s into this junior competition to gain experience and confidence before they move to senior level. They will be mentored on Saturday mornings by experienced local referee’s with the best being targeted to referee representative age group game days held here in Gisborne.”

Referee Development officer David Lawrie was excited with the enthusiasm shown by these young people.” Developing not only their referee ability but their life skills as young people was particularly rewarding. Stepping outside your comfort zone and dealing with man management, decision making and being an authoraitive figure can help in ones personal development. Gisborne has only one qualified referee under the age of 30 so with this infusion of youth combined with the experience already here I think this could be a winning approach that could freshen things up round here.

Gisborne Girls High School and Team Tairawhiti player Holly Scott said “ Its improved my knowledge of the game and recommends it to any young passionate football player. It’s given me the confidence now to ref and can’t wait to get started.”