Quote Originally Posted by Gman View Post
Just an observation, but that is the probably one of the biggest differences I have noticed moving from PYLB in 2024 to NPL in Sydney this year. Heaps of refs, my son is 14s and the refs have been much older refs as well. Always 3 officials for games as they do two age groups and 3 new officials take over. I know it?s a bigger pool of refs but it?s light years ahead of NNSWF.
You also have a population that is ten times the size of ours.

Fact remains that in a smaller area like ours, we need to do a lot more to keep refs, and that starts with everyone involved in the sport not acting like twats if refs make mistakes, which they will.

Quote Originally Posted by Hunter403 View Post
A home club official. One of the youth coaches, i believe. I applaud him for putting his hand up and he did a pretty good job, but the simple fact is that situation is far from ideal.
If we are short of referees then they need to be shared as equally as possible amongst all clubs in both divisions.
As far as I’m aware, northern will not appoint junior refs by themselves on PYL without assistants, see example of old mate above, whereas in community they’re more willing to, for obvious reasons. You also can’t draw from community as those refs simply don’t want to do northern games, and those games have just as much right to refs. And unfortunately, from my experience, northern will also appoint from the top down, so if you’re in ZL3 or Div 2, you’re much less likely to see refs than ZPL or Div 1.