Sports

Football needs referees

North Coast Football is putting out the call for referees as the code prepares for its biggest year ever. Registrations for football in 2022 are expected to be at or near-record level.

In May, six-a-side competitions will commence on the new synthetic pitches at the Coffs Football Centre, increasing demand even further.

Football is the biggest sport on the north coast, with over 5,000 players. Despite the size of the sport, the game has less than one hundred matches for people aged 12 and above.

North Coast Football is working with clubs to identify new junior and senior referees.

Current and former players, parents and fans of the game have been referees.

Clubs have the opportunity to sponsor new referees and work with administrators to support and encourage them as they start their

To become a referee, trainees do online coursework and an inperson training session.

Applicants then sit for a test, and if they pass, they’ll be on the pitch immediately.

Senior referees have the potential to earn several thousand dollars a year, while juniors can pocket several hundred dollars and more annually.

Courses are planned for early May. People interested should visit: www.ncf.link/ refereeing.

Comments by Andrew Woodward, General Manager, North Coast Football:

“Refereeing is a great and have fun.

“You’re also at the centre of the action and have the best view of the game.

“Referees are as crucial as coaches, clubs and committees when it comes to their standing in the game. a pillar of the game. They are central to the integrity of matches, the enjoyment of players, coaches and spectators and the delivery of quality matches.

“We will grow the 11-a-side game with massive opportunities in the female area in the years ahead.

“We also have the at the Coffs Football Centre, which we’re using to deliver six-aside football from May and other formats in the months and years ahead.

“We need more referees, and we have the structures to support them through their introduction to the game.

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Reds make the right choice with former Redman

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“Right from my junior football days people were telling me I’d never become a professional footy player,” he said.

“When the Waratahs told me I was too short, that was another point to prove.” grade coach Craig Howe, who taught and coached a young Connor Vest, is not one of the doubters.

“I have loved the fact that he has never ever given up,” he said. “He has had plenty of people from a young age telling him he couldn’t or wouldn’t make a rugby player and he has proved them all wrong.

“He has a unique double in the (Sydney First Grade Rugby Union) Shute Shield and (Queensland) Hospital Cup premierships.”

Howe began coaching him as a teenager at high school and junior representative levels and found all you needed to do was play him in the right spot

“At school when I started coaching him in Year 11 he thought he was a centre, but he couldn’t pass,” he said.

“We had a bit of a chat and he thought he might have a crack in the forwards at lock (second row) and he killed it.

“That year he made the North Coast team which won the CHS state ever with Jake McIntyre.

“He was picked in the NSW CHS 3rds which I was coaching.

“After a game he was from there made the President’s XV to go to Aussie champs. From there he was selected as a shadow reserve for Aussie schools.”

Since he left Grafton to chase his footballing dream, Howe, his year adviser at school, has followed his career closely.

“Connor always had that drive to be good,” Howe said. “He was a great strong ball runner and really coachable.

“I didn’t coach him at the Redmen, only at school and schools rep teams.

“Once he made CHS and further he was one I hoped would make it and in Brad Thorn that didn’t care about ‘what you should look like’.

Vest has gelled with his Reds coach former dual international Brad Thorn, who played international rugby with the New Zealand All Blacks and Test and State of Origin rugby league with Queensland and Australia.

Thorn, no towering giant, has not discriminated on size when judging potential players.

“Have a look at him, Connor may be an inch shorter than me and I played at Test level,” Thorn said in an interview earlier this year.

“You have your strengths, you bring them out. Playing next to the Brisbane Broncos) taught me that; the smallest guy you’ll meet and probably the best player I ever played with.”

Vest said Thorn made similar comments when time.

“He’s a similar build to me and he played the game with same physicality and brutality I aim to bring,” he said.

“He competed to win every single minute he that’s how I approach my game.”

Vest got an opportunity to show that against the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night courtesy of a 33rd-minute red card to back-rower Tuaina Tualima.

“I think we were up 16-7 when I came on, and the game was really in the mix,” he said. “I wanted to bring the energy and really get stuck in.”

But Vest said it was also important the team continued to follow the game plan which was to unsettle the previously unbeaten Brumbies.

“We had a game plan to target their style of play,” he said. “We wanted to play position early in the game and hold the ball and get stuck in later in the game, which created a lot of pressure.”

Vest said his next ambition was to be named in the Reds starting team.

“At the moment I’m stoked to be on the bench, there’s a couple of good players ahead of me now,” he said.

“It’s my job to come on towards the end of the game to make sure we maintain the intensity and physicality.

“But for sure, I would like nothing more than to be out there from the opening whistle.”

Vest, who at 27, has been a late bloomer in Super Rugby, said he could see himself playing at least two more seasons in Australia.

But he is not blind to the opportunities available for professional players overseas.

“Professional football means looking at opportunities to play overseas and if the right offer comes you have to look at it.

“But right now I would like to play at least two more seasons in Australia.”

That’s good news for the Grafton Redmen, who already have experience.

“He came back and did a guest coaching night when I was coaching Redmen First,” How said.

“I asked and he didn’t hesitate. That’s the mark of the man.”