nomoneyin the bank
Years ago
Coach and ref shortages?
There have been a number of posts lately about poor coaching, referring and/or not enough coaches or refs all leading to the same question: What to do about it?
In a nutshell, it seems the refs are either not good enough, there are not enough of them and they are all getting fed up with being abused. The better ones are able to be more selective where they officiate and regrettably some stadiums have the reputation for providing refs with a distant relationship with common sense and fair play.
On the coaching front, below Div 3 is unchartered waters for most who want to coach district seriously thus it is often left to mums, dads and 'Rusty' the bull terrier to coach kids who need the most work.
As in all things motivated by political correctness, having made refs a protected species has led to them becomming more precious and vulnerable to both the good natured rubbishing and totally unacceptable
abuse but without the experience to differentiate between the two. Unfortunately refs expect, in this sheltered environment, when
they perform below par to be received by the assembeld mob as if they had oficiated well. Youngsters are given U18, U16, etc games at Div 1 level where the players are considerably more sklled than the ref controllng their game which is a recipe for disaster. Frustration boils over, no one is happy, coaches , players parents or refs and another week in district rolls along: 'Ground Hog day'.
Refs need to paid coniderably more, in fact twice or three times as much.
Refs need to oficiate at the level they can accommodate.
Refs like players need to earn respect.
Refs need to be recruited thru job centres etc as cricket umps were.
UIC need to do regular upgrades and run with young umpires.
The odd ref,UIC and umpire needs to be sacked when repeated complaints are made.
Coaches should have to put in a report after each game on a set criteria on the officiators.
Every district club should have to provide 3 umpires and be responsible for training them.
The umpiring director's role should be reviewed and redefined to be productivity based.
Maybe we need to look at reducing the number of teams and Divsions at District level because we cannot reasonably expect kids to play and keep paying when
they get second rate officials coaching and running the game. Either that or reduce the club fees for Div 3 and below.
