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Brad Arthur isn’t only Parramatta’s NRL head coach, he also looks after a junior rugby league team in Sydney’s western suburbs.
His son plays in the team and from what I am told he coaches them in the evenings and looks after them on game day when NRL commitments permit.
Not much is made of it and it’s a mark of the man that he goes about volunteering his time for the Rouse Hill Rhinos without any fanfare.
(I wasn’t going to mention the club’s name, but I had a roast beef roll there two weeks ago and – despite being closer to the Country Rugby League than Parramatta – it was well worth the drive.)
The team in question is the Under-13s and the reason I mention it is because of a conversation I overheard with a referee about the people involved with the club. There was nothing but compliments for Luke Burt, who also looks after a junior team by the sounds of it, and Arthur himself.
Until I heard this: “We had a good 16-year-old referee looking after the game, when Brad asked me ‘Why do we always get the kids? Why can’t we get an adult ref?'”
If I was holding that roll at the time there would have been roast beef all over the place. The reason is due to my experience in junior rugby league refereeing, where for a time I was director of recruitment and retention for my local district.
It’s a difficult job, not least because it’s hard enough to get new referees – of any age – to take the Level 1 refereeing course for their accreditation, but to retain them beyond their first season is a miracle.
Why is it so hard, you ask? Why should it be a battle? There’s a lot of upside to refereeing – some part-time income, a new focus on fitness, the camaraderie of new friends, a new way of looking at the game – so what’s not to like?
After all, if someone of Brad Arthur’s esteem can expect there to be plenty of adult referees running around, why aren’t there?
Enter Luke Curry, CEO of the South Sydney Junior Rugby League, who emailed every parent in the district last Friday.
“Constant abuse of ground staff and match officials, including referees as young as 13 years of age, by coaches, trainers, managers, and other officials and players as well, is destabilising the foundation of our competition.”
Curry’s email has been widely reported in the media so I don’t need to repeat the suspensions and fines that were handed out. What has not been elaborated on is what can be done about it by the average parent or footy fan at their local ground.
I can answer that for you – everything.
It’s a lot like the trends in society at the moment that we are unfortunately starting to see gain momentum, such as racism. It Stops With Me, Not In My Name, and the White Ribbon campaign against domestic violence are thankfully sending powerful messages that provoke personal responsibility in individuals.
The power lies within each person to stand up and be counted and not tolerate abuse of those less powerful.
The message doesn’t mean to confront anyone. It doesn’t require retaliation. It doesn’t need a shouting match. It can be much more subtle and much more effective.
In my post-NRL career I’m attempting to succeed in becoming a high-school teacher. I’ve found that one of the most effective techniques in calming a rowdy classroom of teenagers is to stand or sit out the front and simply be quiet.
Silent. Silent for minutes. Let the noise continue. Allow the most noisy to hear their own voices. Until it’s only their own voices they hear.
They’ve gone quiet because the rest of the class disapproves. Their classmates have had enough. The teacher is waiting and there are a couple of idiots preventing the other 25 kids doing what they should be doing and what they want to do.
It is very effective and it’s very satisfying when it works, which is almost all of the time. For the one out of 10 times there are other measures within the remit of the classroom teacher.
My challenge to every Roarer reading this is to differentiate between what happens in the NRL and what happens at your local park.
If you pay your $50 to go to ANZ Stadium or Allianz Stadium or any other ground hosting a first-grade game then you have paid the right to say what you want to the officials. They have the experience, the support and the match fee to cop it.
It doesn’t make a difference at that level – I’ve been there plenty of times – and there would be 1000 other times I didn’t hear anything. I even give NRL officials a whack on social media when they deserve it, because at the elite level sometimes the game deserves more than what I see.
However, when you’re at your local park on Saturday morning and some idiot wants to get stuck into a young referee – whether they are right or wrong is irrelevant – don’t go shouting out in support of the abuse. Stay silent, give them a scowl if you feel like it will help – or if it’s really bad report them to the ground manager and the local junior league.
If you get a chance over a coffee or a beer later that weekend, you might just say: ‘Hey, mate, about the game this weekend,’ and then wait for the reply. Like taking a trouble maker out of the classroom, if you can get a hot-headed parent away from the ground you might be able to get them to think about their behaviour.
It’s just a thought.
Save the expletives for the television on Super Saturday later that evening.
I’ll leave the last word to Luke Curry at Souths Juniors.
“The trend can’t be reversed without the help of the majority who are involved in our game for the right reasons. Let’s do it together and get our game back to what it is supposed to be – the greatest game of all.”
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