CBRA - 2005 Annual Report

DIRECTOR OF REFEREES’ REPORT Mr. John McCormack It is with pleasure that I submit my first report to members as Director of Referees for season 2005. It has been an extremely challenging and rewarding year as Kim Archer, Bob Garwood and I looked at ways of improving the on-field performance of refereeing in our district along with evaluating and appraising the week to week performances to ensure we had the best referees in each grade.

At the beginning of the season I stated that our aim was to assess the performance of referees and place them in the appropriate grade relative to their skills and the skills and performances of other referees. At the same time we recognized that referees are at different stages in their careers and will have varying aspirations.

Some members have aspirations to be graded, some are only new to refereeing and require guidance whereas other members are happy to run Saturday football and compete at the junior football level. By implementing a few different strategies this season I feel we have been successful in meeting our goals. We still have a long way to go, but I feel we have addressed the issues with fairness and integrity.

The 2005 season saw a new structure in assessing referee performances. The Appointment Board system was replaced by a two tier structure. The top tier consisted of a 3 person Appointment Board who would meet each week and review referee performances and make appointments for the following week. The group included Kim Archer, Bob Garwood and me. The second tier was the Advisory Board. These people would watch referees each week, provide feedback to the referee and report back to the Appointment Board.

For many years we have used the system of appointment of referees to Grand Finals whereby the loser of the semi finals series in a grade would invariably not referee a grand final and be appointed as a touch judge. This season saw the change (in line with other Associations who have used it for a number of years) to the cascading appointment of referees. All things being equal, the ‘loser’ of the semi finals series in a grade would move down to the next lowest grade. For example, if referee ranked 3 beat referee ranked 4, then referee 4 would referee the 4th highest grade grand final. This meant that the top referees would referee the top grand finals.

This system pleased the District Club, but there will always be those people who don’t like it. It benefits the top referees and disadvantages the lower ranked referees. When the dust settled and we look back on the season we note that the 21