CBRA - 2007 Annual Report

DIRECTOR OF REFEREES’ REPORT Mr. John McCormack It is with pleasure that I submit the Director of Referees report to the members for season 2007. Another season has flown by and this season Kim Archer and I welcomed Chris Bettiol to the role of Assistant Director of Referees with the retirement of Bob Garwood due to family and work commitments. Chris has settled in well to the role and contributed well to the duties of Monday night meetings and watching referees on the weekend.

As we set out in season 2006 to improve the development of referees we again made some slight changes to the way we approached the development of referees in the District. Kim remained in charge of the Saturday referee ranks by continuously monitoring the young referees’ development. Chris took on the role of liaison with the Advisory Board to encourage greater participation on weekends and I maintained a focus on the development of Sunday referees, though we all provided input and voted on referee rankings each week. In hindsight I feel that we could have done a better job in providing direction and support to the referees to develop their skills on the field. To improve in this area we need to achieve a higher level of commitment from our Advisory Board members to watch and provide coaching tips to our referees. Two ways to accomplish this are; 1. promote a greater commitment to watching referees by all Advisory Board members, 2. to encourage the Advisory Board members to attain their level 1 and 2 coaching certificates.

The referees covered all the district competition games, women's competition and mid-week games without complaint or fanfare. The standard of refereeing in the Canterbury district remains high despite the referee drain to Grade each season and loss of referees through normal attrition. On review, we lost 2 referees to Grade and a further 13 who did not pull on the boots again between 2006 and 2007. On the positive side we welcomed 2 new referees and 2 past members back to the active ranks. It is a credit to you all when you tolerate the many last minute changes to games and venue – normally on a Friday night as I travel home from work on the train.

My thanks go to the Advisory Board members who gave up their valuable private time to watch referees each weekend, sometimes in quite trying conditions. Their efforts have a significant impact on the development of referees and to ensure the correct appointment of referees to finals fixtures. Special mention should be given 19