Quote Originally Posted by northern_swan View Post
Availability is an issue because referees are walking away because they are not being supported. Get your head out of the sand.

There is zero chance of my sons refereeing in the PYL system because there is no support or development happening. Both of my kids instead act as club referees at their local community club where they are supported, coached and feel safe. My 15 year old is beginning to take charge of all age and over 35 games because the club has deemed him competent to do so. I club referee when required. All 3 of us have done the club referees course, but there?s no chance of going into Northerns toxic environment.
Northern recently held a meeting for clubs to understand how referees are coached, graded, appointed, assessed and supported. There was a good turnout. We heard about how mentors are appointed to matches refereed by green shirt first year refs, regular coaching sessions for all referees groups (including youth), video incident presentations sent to all refs; assessors appointed to youth matches (clearly there are not enough of them); referee coaches involved in the appointments process; a referee welfare officer who contacts youth refs to check up on their match day experiences; a match day report form for refs who have a tough day to complete so they get extra support; and senior referees being appointed with youth refs to give them match day support and coaching.

To us at the meeting, that sounded like pretty decent support for refs.

I'm sure that some referee appointments will not be the right ones, but I wouldn't envy them the job of trying to cover games with limited referee numbers, especially in another season of wet weather and rescheduled matches.

The main reason i would think young refs eventually give away officiating is because of the time factor. Many will eventually put playing ahead of refereeing (fair enough). Once they get a part-time job during the football season, they don't come back to ref the next season. And anything that happens on game days that makes refereeing unenjoyable just makes it easier for refs to make the decision to do something else with their time.