[Law] Will you stay or will you go

[Christy]

Hi all .
Just wondering all new referees started this season .
Did you enjoy taking up the whistle .
Were you satisfied or dissapointed with your mentoring .
Did you find it harder than what you anticipated .
Will you come back next season .

( im not looking for a point by point answer to above ,,but just your generall thoughts )

For referees who have been whistling for a few years .
Are you still getting a good buz out of your games .
Or are the crowds being more opinionated & are you looking to stay or go ...

 

[SimonSmith]

I'm sticking at it. I find I'm enjoying watching and coaching other referees just as much, but resources being what they are here, I have to spend the bulk of my time refereeing.

We're generally OK with crowds here. Early in my tenure I pretty much salted the earth with regard to referee abuse and threatened one of the conferences that we support with a complete withdrawal if things didn't change. They did, and word got around that I wasn't bluffing, so we have very few issues compared to other Societies. That said, I'm refereeing at the higher end of the spectrum, so I may have a skewed view.

In the next two or three years I'm going to have to start to wind my way down the grades; we'll see how enthusiastic I am then...

 

[Marc Wakeham]

Staying. Love every minute of it. Little in the way of "politics" at my level.

 

[Dickie E]

my son is now playing a fairly high level so I will be more likely to be watching on Saturday afternoons. My future will be morning games so club juniors and schools.

I must say I am a bit over half-wits telling me to do my job properly.

 

[Zebra1922]

Staying. Love every minute of it. Little in the way of "politics" at my level.

The joys of 'politics'. I get enough of that crap at work so I'm trying to stay out of it at Society level.

 

[Christy]

The joys of 'politics'. I get enough of that crap at work so I'm trying to stay out of it at Society level.

Hi zebra .
Am i reading your post that you stay away from society meetings or from a society all together .
In irfu land we have 2 types of referees .

There is an affiliate ref which can referee their own youth matches only . U 13 to u 18
May they be a school match or club match .
A participant over 18 years old has an approx 3 hour briefing of the laws .
And how best to safely implement same .

Then we have society refs .
Where if you join you need to attend regular meetings , to learn to more in-depth implement laws etc .
In fact , any new referees will not get matches , unless they attend meetings

Also no youth match can go ahead unless 2 things happen .
A team sheet is registered & produced on day .
The referee must be at minimum an affiliate ref ..

As for my self , i am looking to hang on in there for a bit more yet .

 

[beckett50]

I have enjoyed this season but will take time over the summer to review whether I continue next season.
Of course I will work on my fitness as if I am to continue.

 

[crossref]

For me , they will have to prise the whistle from my cold, dead hands

But at the same time I don't do sevens much and for me April is the end of the season and I really enjoy my summer break until it all starts again in August /September.


Next

 

[VM75]

I see little evidence that community clubs do much proactively to discourage touchline chunter towards/at referees, other than put up the free poster they get !

In the community game I often try & find the loudest touchline dissenter & engage with him/her at halftime or at full time/bar & re-educate on what respecting officials actually means in practice or find out where his lack of knowledge comes from - often it's not difficult to work out !

I'm with Crossref, my body will give me up before my brain & management skills pack up, probably.

 

[Blackberry]

I stopped reffing end of last season, had a wonderful last game reffing the team I co-founded at Uni. In my last few games clubs were really generous in their wishes and I left with a warm glow.

Hand on heart, I don't miss it, but that's because I am so so lucky that I had other interests pulling me out.

I didn't find crowds getting worse, I reckon there is often more awareness of how...well.. weird shouting at someone from the touchline is. Also refs are briefed now to make it an SEP, someone else's problem...just summon the power of the blazer to sort it out.

Fitness was a problem for me, I hurt my knee early on in my last season and always then felt vulnerable. Since stopping reffing I am training and cycling much more so I am fitter that I ever was as a ref.... though still too heavy. I had cataract surgery (I had no idea i had cataracts, seriously) and not only did this clear my vision but they kindly corrected my short sightedness too. Amazing or what? I had a medical for my flying licence last month and the CAA doctor said I was the first guy of 60 years old who could move from a Class 2 to a Class 1 medical

I tried to help out as an advisor, and saw 7 refs before Christmas, but found that my advice wasn't always the same as my more learned colleagues so I bade a quiet retreat.

If anyone is thinking of giving it a go, don't hesitate, you do the game a great service and develop some great interpersonal skills too. You learn how to handle personal disasters... we all had them... and emerge as a stronger person.

Great memories too, I remember reffing Chesham vs Slough and feeling dissent from the crowd, well, at least a lack of support. At half time I was sucking disconsolately on my orange to be told by the touch judge that my some guy, a git, had turned up and was walking round the crowd feigning surprise that "this joker is reffing a league game, he's not qualified for league games" ; it was my brother (Uxbridge RFC) who was bored watching Uxbridge finessing their skill at charging down conversions and so had driven out to watch me ref

 

[crossref]

blackberry - I have been to Uxbridge three or four times in the last couple of seasons. Perhaps I have encountered your brother

for all those thinking of giving up I give you this : it is from the club I reffed at yesterday and it really made me smile. There is something about it that I think sums up community rugby.

View attachment 3736

And for added atmosphere, here is the track that one of the teams had on repeat at the side of the pitch
https://open.spotify.com/track/58FylpjpVXnwqoDuNrGn6a

happy days.

 

[SimonSmith]

I separate out the politics from the refereeing.

I see plenty of the bad stuff at local and national level, and I wear a different head for it. I'm in a fight with our Head Office now and am so disgusted with the state of the National Body that I've put myself forward for the Board of Directors. I don't expect to get on, but I think, given how I feel about things, it would be difficult to rail against it again and again if I didn't offer myself as part of a solution.

The refereeing? Pick up the whistle, run and blow. That's all I want on a Saturday...

 

[Rich_NL]

First season of seniors, and I'm definitely staying. There's a friendly, supportive culture here, and I've enjoyed (most of) my games.

Some things aren't as hard as I'd expected, some things are harder. I think as one starts learning and doing, one generally realises that a lot of what appeared to be a challenge is actually quite straightforward, and vice versa.

 

[crossref]

That's intriguing, Rich, give us some examples ?

 

[Rich_NL]

Hmm... generally speaking the technical aspects (laws, scrums, keeping track of the game, etc) are easier than I'd anticipated, but I feel I need to improve at the communication and performative side of things - preventing penalties, judging what to penalise and what to let go according to the level of the match, making decisions clear to the back line (and the sidelines).

I suppose originally I thought spotting the offence was the hardest part, but now the challenge is more "what do I do with it?" I expect that in a while I'll be happier with what I find difficult now, and find new challenges in the bit that I find easier.

 

[Phil E]

For referees who have been whistling for a few years .
Are you still getting a good buz out of your games .
Or are the crowds being more opinionated & are you looking to stay or go ...

Well i'm not getting any younger but enjoying my reffing more than ever. Probably because i'm very comfortable at the level I do (8) and on top of the management. My last report said...

The Referee was up with ALL plays and observed to position himself at In Goal Area when required to see a score.
Referee was happy with his Grading, but on this presentation he could be considered for a Level 7 in future.
In old style reporting this would be Graded as a “GOOD Game”

I have also been given a cup final to referee at the end of the season, so very happy.

Like Simon, when I can't keep up with play and have to drop down the levels we will see if its still fun. I take my turn at the moment doing lower level games and it can be frustrating if they can't raise a team or a front row, but that's not every week.

On the coaching side the young referee I coach/mentor was awarded most promising young referee last season and is now doing level 6 games, so I am also happy with how that is going.

Life is good.

 

[didds]

I watched our U14s play yesterday - the society ref was reffing when I was playing Devizes 2nds which is some while ago now (and I haven;t played for at least 12 years). Spoke to him after the game - he's 63 vnext week and still enjoying it .

He still owes me a fiver on a laws bet when we played Old Culverhaysians yonks ago!

didds

 

[Flish]

This is my first full season doing Adult Saturday games, and fully intend to carry on and commit to Saturday games next season. Learnt a hell of a lot, especially about game management and positioning, and a lot more to learn yet. Have only had 1 game where I left demoralised (My second game, L11, home team got thrashed and instead of jovially accepting their fate they went the other way and smashed at and moaned at everything) which I like to think I would manage better now.

I need to try and get to more of the monthly meetings so my face is known, sods law they always seem to be the same Friday as the Vets games I manage and play in. The only real continuing annoyance is 'other factors', couple of times I've turned up to an empty car park (game off but no one told me), or the weather up here in North East UK has been a joke this winter, think I've lost 6 games to it so far.

Overall though it's been good and I enjoy it, that may change if and when I rise up the levels, but not massively concerned about that. might even put my hand up for any 7s fixtures over the summer too. Am fitter now than when I played so I'll try and keep that up!

 

[Ciaran Trainor]

I've been Reffing now for 16 years and still enjoy it, basically refereeing at the level I played at.
For me crowds and players are showing less respect but I have the experience to see through the dickheads and occasionally confront them if necessary. In our society I'm pleased to say refs have had enough resulting in a number of suspensions for dissent.
I'm too old to worry about politics but do wonder sometimes why I can make 140 mile round trip to society meetings yet others never bother.
I have to admire the juggling act our appointments guy does every week with limited resources.
Looking forward to a few more years yet, body and mind permitting and providing 'er indoors keeps smiling!

 

[Dickie E]

but do wonder sometimes why I can make 140 mile round trip to society meetings yet others never bother.

in this world of tele-commuting, video conferencing, etc I wonder if the old paradigm of society meetings is ready for an overhaul. I've suggested it locally but on deaf ears. They'd rather have a 20% turnout then bitch about those that don't turn up. Even to the point of "if you don't turn up, you don't have a right to know what is going on".