Referee Advisor Andrew Cavell has given us the following insight into the Referee program, including some of the achievements and challenges facing the Referee program. Please have a read as this may answer many questions you have about the program at Waverley.
WAVERLEY REFEREE’S CORNER
Our program
My name is Andrew Cavell and I am the Referee Adviser at Waverley Stadium and I thought you might like to know more about our referee program.
Currently we have 86 registered referees at Waverley who referee approximately 260 matches per week. We have had an increase of 39% in the last two years to match the increase in competition size.
Waverley offers a very structured development program put in place by Referee Development Officers (RDOs) who are assigned to every shift and are responsible for the development of the C and B Grade referees. The aim of our program is to evaluate these referees (approximately 50 in total) once per month, which is a huge effort.
Challenges
The biggest challenge we face is always being reactive to the size of the competition when we train our beginner referees. Generally, clubs do not know how many people will register for the following season, which means the competition does not know how large it will become; hence, we do not know how many referees we need until the season begins. As of this current beginner school we have changed our training practices so beginner referees will become qualified referees in five weeks as opposed to the previous ten weeks.
Successes
Our program has not only grown 39% in the last two years but has grown 120% in the last five years. We have also improved our retention of all referees over the last two years:
Referees with 1 year experience: Increase of 16% retained as active referees
Referees with 2 years’ experience: Increase of 10% retained as active referees
Referees with 3 years’ experience: Increase of 14% retained as active referees
Referees with 4 years’ experience: Increase of 38% retained as active referees
At the representative level of referees we have increased our VJBL Victorian Championship referees from one referee in 2010 to six in 2012 and most likely nine in 2013. Our Big V representation has also increased from one in 2010 to three in 2012 and possibly five in 2013.
Our program is one of the most structured and successful programs in Victoria, and although we always face challenges I am proud that Waverley supports its referees 100% of the time and successes show that.
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