Country Rugby League Referees Association

The Final Agenda for the 2012 CRLRA Workshop has now been released and distributed to all CRLRA Associations. It can be downloaded by Clicking here. With the theme being "Backing Up" it promised to deliver all of the interesting topics of past years with the involvement of top class presenters including NRL Referees Gavin Badger, Ben Cummins, Tony Delasheras, Adam Devcich, Chris James and Alan Shortall along with regular presenters Mick Stone, David Jay, Barrie Keenahan and the CRLRA Development Officers.
There will be 112 attendees at the Seminar including 26 Level 1 Referees, 53 Level 2's, 23 Level 3's, 4 x Level 4’s and a Level 5. There will also be 23 NRAS Providers and 41 CMO's (Coaches of match Officials).

Have you ever wanted to know why the Country Rugby League Referees' Association was first set up or when it was done and who was involved? Also, it is interesting to see who was on the first Executive. Well, the minutes of that very first meeting held in Sydney on 13 November 1938 will answer those questions. Click here to download a copy.

Congratulations to Illawarra and CRLRA member, Barrie Keenahan on becoming the newest life member of the ARLRA along with Brisbane Referees' Assn member, Eddie Ward at the ARLRA's Annual Dinner held on 19 November 2011 in at the NSWRL Leagues Club. Barrie has been involved in the coaching and development of referees for many years and is a presenter of the ARLRA's CMO Courses. A life member of the Illawarra Referees as well as the Illawarra Rugby League Barrie has been a CRL Representative referee and leading Illawarra official. he has headed up the Illawarra Referees' Coaching Panel for many years and has been instrumental in developing all of that Division'c current crop of grade officials. All in the CRLRA congratulate Baz on this significant award.

The Australian Rugby League Referees Association (ARLRA) is inviting Affiliated Referees Associations to nominate suitably qualified members to be considered for the awarding of Life Membership of the ARLRA. Those nominated must have held Life Membership of the nominating Association for a minimum of twenty (20) years and have made significant ongoing contributions to their Association or the area of Rugby League Refereeing. Full details can be obtained by Clicking here and nominations must be received by the CEO of the ARLRA no later than 31 December 2011.

The 2011 CRLRA Annual General Meeting saw a couple changes to the Executive of the Association after long serving Chairman, Nick best OAM, did notg stand for re-election. He has been succeeded by the former Deputy Chairman, Graham Turnbull of Group 21 Refereess, with William Drury (South Coast/Group 7) moving from Vice-President to the position of Deputy Chairman. Kevin Rayment (Group 3 Referees) joins the Executive for the first time as the new Vice-President. The other members of the Executive remain the same with Kevin Riolo (Illawarra) as Secretary, Frank Kitcher (Newcastle) as Treasurer and Kevin Forde (Woodbridge Cup) remaining as the other Vice-President.

Photo shows from left William Drury, Graham Turnbull, Kevin Forde, Kevin Riolo, Frank Kitcher and Kevin Rayment.

The Annual General Meeting of the CRLRA held in Wollongong on Saturday 12 November 2011 saw the end of an era when its Chairman of the past thirty years, Nick Best OAM, did not seek re-election for the position. Recent years has seen Nick suffer some health problems that have influenced his decision to step down. Nick has made a significant contribution to the CRLRA and to Rugby League in general during his tenure and this was recognised last year when he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Australia Day Honours List. Not only has Nick chaired the CRLRA during this time but has also been a CRL Appointments Board member, a member of the NRAS, and a Board Member of the ARLRA. Truly a remarkable contribution. Nick as advised that although he has stepped down as Chairman of the CRLRA he still intends to remain involved in the game which is great to hear. All in the game throughout the nation wish Nick and Marion all the best for the future.

Long serving NSW Country Rugby League Referees Official, Neville Norris, has been awarded Life Membership of the CRLRA at the Association's Annual Dinner held at Wollongong on Saturday 12 November 2011. Neville's contribution to the development and coaching of younger referees is probably unsurpassed and covers a period in excess of thirty years. He has become known as one of the "gurus" of the Laws of Rugby League. There are many of today's elite referees who have been mentored by Neville as they have journeyed to the top of their craft. More recently Neville has worked tirelessly as on the of the CRLRA's development officers responsible for the South Eastern NSW area. His charges have performed admirably in all of the carnivals that they have officiated with many of them going on to higher representative honours.
In a nice touch during the awarding of Neville's Life Membership, CRLRA Chairman Graham Turnbull called on Neville's wife, Carole, to pin the Life Membership badge to his lapel.
All in the CRLRA congratulate Neville on his well deserved award.

(Picture shows new CRLRA Life Member, Neville Norris, and his wife Carole after Neville was bestowed with his award.)

The Illawarra Referees' Annual General Meeting held on Monday 7 November saw the end of an era when the Association's longest serving Secretary, Luigi Volpato, declined a nomination for re-election. He has been the Association's Secretary for a record period of sixteen years having beaten the tenure of the previous longest serving Secretary, Allan Byrnes, by one year.
Luigi's contribution to the Illawarra Referees and the Illawarra Rugby League has been invaluable and he is one of the reasons why the Illawarra Association is one of the strongest in the CRLRA. As Secretary he has also been responsible for the appointments of our junior referees to weekly Mini/Mod and Junior fixtures which is no mean feat. His replacement is former Assistant Secretary Mitchell James who knows that he has some very big shoes to fill. But Luigi will not be lost to the Illawarra Referees as he is as life member and an integral part of our Junior Development Team.

The BHP Billiton Mt Arthur Coal Hunter Valley Group 21 Rugby League held their Annual Dinner after last Sunday’s grand final at Scone. During the presentations on the night Rod Bowd, well known referee in Group 21 and in rugby league circles was presented with a Country Rugby League Merit Award. This award is for untiring service, involvement and support in the development and well being of the Country Rugby Football League of NSW. This is one of the highest awards that are given by Country Rugby League. There has been only 108 Merit Award that have been presented to recipients in country NSW. Jesse Dial and Neil Barry are two people that have previously been awarded this honour.

Rod has been involved in rugby league in various capacities for the past 35 years. Most of that time has been as a referee in junior and senior league, but over the years he has been a player, Association secretary for 16 years, Scone Junior League President for 2 years, delegate to Group 21 senior and junior league committees, Group 21 Management Committee, Group 21 Development Panel member, Northern Division delegate, Central Hunter Power delegate, Country Rugby League delegate and Country Rugby League Referees’ Association delegate.

Rod has attended all junior league grounds this year assessing new referees and offering guidance on how to improve their performance to make them a better referee as well as still being an active referee in senior league. He has been a first grade referee for many years and received his level 3 referee certificate in 2007.

During the year Group 21 Referees have represented their local Association at higher levels of Rugby League. Matt Edwards had been appointed to a CRL first grade match that was played at Scone and the Country NSW v Country Qld match at Uralla. Liam Parker and Michael Hedges were appointed to 15/16s CRL junior league country champions that were played at Forster and came away with refereeing the finals at that venue. Joey Butler and Roxley Duggan were also appointed to the 13/14s CRL country championships at Inverell where their performances were highly rated. Young referee Joey Butler refereed at the NSW All Schools carnival held in Sydney in early August and received the final of the Open Primary B game, a touch line on the Tuesday in the 13s final and a touch line in the 12s elite schools final on the Wednesday.

Last Sunday was a first for Group 21 referees when the youngest group of match officials controlled the first grade match between Singleton and Scone, Matt Edwards was the referee while Michael Hedges and Liam Parker were the touch judges.

(Photo shows Tony Goldman (Group 21 Treasurer) Jane Walmsley (Group 21 Secretary) presenting Rod Bowd with his CRL Merit Award.)

The CRLRA has Referee Performance Report Books available at $16 each including postage. These have proved extremely popular. Orders may be placed to William Drury, PO BOX 301, MILTON NSW 2538 via fax on (02) 4455 2255 or by email at print@ulladullaprinting.com.au Cheques should be made payable to CRLRA.

The Easter school holidays provided the perfect opportunity for 6 development squad referees and 6 development officers from the CRLRA to attend the NRL referees weekly activities. The 6 referees were selected from the Development squads; they were Corbin Kelly, Jake Whitehouse, Casey Law, Lachlan Wild, Jake White and Zac Wilson. The 6 Development Officers were Tony Hardy, Pat Walsh, Steve Toms, Wayne Wilson, Neville Norris and Kevin Petty.

The week started by attending a game at the original home of Rugby League, SCG. We watched the game between the Dragons and Bulldogs. On Monday morning we were welcomed by the head coach of the NRL referees Bill Harrigan and from that point on were made part of the team. All the boys trained, watched videos, went into debriefs, all activates that the NRL referees did our boys did as well. The Development Officers participated in all activities with the coaches and assessors.

At training sessions the boys took part in all the drills and on Thursday morning after the NRL referees had completed their training run before heading back to the office Bill stayed behind to give the young refs a few more drills to work on to help improve their game. It was a big thrill for the boys being able to have a one on one with the head coach. Russel Smith and Stuart Raper also gave the boys a lot of helpful hints throughout the week to assist the boys.

On Tuesday night Matt Cecchin, Ashley Klein and Gavin Reynolds took the boys to the movies, giving them an opportunity to talk to them in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Wednesday, a meeting was held between the Referees, Development Officers with the President and Secretary of the CRLRA to discuss a number of issues including the annual seminar, with all present having some very good input into how we can attract more active referees to this annual event. This was the first time that such a meeting has taken place since the development squads was introduced.

A very big thank you to the CRLRA executive for committing the finances for this week, Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper and all the NRL Referees and staff for opening their doors and allowing the young referees to get an insight in what is required to becoming one of the top referees in this country and the Development Officers for giving up their time to bring these young referees in and for their input into the week and finally to the development squad members for their outstanding effort and participating in all activities. Seeing the enjoyment and hearing the positive feedback from them made organising this week all worthwhile.

One hopes that such an event can continue in some form in the coming years and in Bill’s word “hope to see some of these fine young gentlemen that attended sitting in the seats of the NRL referees in years to come”.

Tony Hardy - CRLRA Development Officer

Mr Bert Lowrie, the Operations Manager of the Country Rugby League has issued the following amendment to Policy No 17 (Player Equipment & Apparel) of the CRL Operation Manual to read as follows:-

In a match environment, compression garments may only be worn on the following provisions:

• Compression Garments  may not extend past the elbow or knee of the player, neck/collar or the playing sock;
• Compression garments may only be black or skin tone in colour;
• External branding, meaning logos or insignias, may be carried on the compression garments as follows: 
  • Location:                               base of shorts only;
  • Placement on shorts:         base of right hand side when worn;
• No visible adhesive tape, patch or any other material covering up the manufacturer’s logo should be visible; 
• Stitching devices may be shown and not required to be blacked out.

This policy has been distributed to all respective Leagues and Clubs.

The CRLRA Executive reinforces that this Policy applies to all Leagues playing under the banner of the CRL. This includes Newcastle, Central Coast and Illawarra. This Policy should be followed this coming weekend, 2^nd and 3^rd April.

The members of Group 2 RA are the 2011 winners of the inaugural "Tony Young Shield" awarded to the Association with the best results in the Laws Exam conducted at the Annual CRLRA Workshop. The Group 2 team of five referees under the astute leadership of Ken Smith were judged the best Laws association based on the results of the exam. Group 3 RA came in a close second. Former NRL official and current Group 6 RA Executive member, Alan Foster, achieved a perfect score and will henceforth be known as "Nadia" (after the famous Romanian gymnast who was the first to score a perfect 10 in Olympics competition).

Congratulations to Ken and his team but rest assured that after seeing the impressive shield that has been donated by Tony Young there will be a fair bit of pressure on them next year to retain it.

Congratulations also to Tony Young for coming up with this fantastic initiative to make the Laws section of the Annual Workshop more interesting. Tony proudly displays his shield in the photo above as he hands it over to CRLRA Vice-President, Kevin Forde.

CRLRA Chairman, Nick Best, has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the 2011 Australia Day Honours List for "Service as a referee and as a rugby league administrator". Nick was an active referee in the South Coast/Group 7 area for 26 years as well as the President of the CRLRA since 1981. All in the rugby league refereeing fraternity congratulate Nick on this prestigious award. Nick said that the medal was recognition for family, friends and colleagues and meant a lot to him. He was in such shock when he received the letter advising him of his award that he had to lie down as he thought that he was going to suffer a heart attack.

Following a submission by the National Refereeing Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) Sub-Committee to the ARLD Council at its meeting of Thursday 2 December 2010, it was resolved that I write to all State and Territory Leagues to clarify that the 40/20 Law IS to be played in all Mod League Under 12 Competitions.

There had been some confusion about whether the rule applied in Junior competitions.

Mod League Law 19 (Kicking) states:

"...Kicking in general play is allowed - APART from -
(a) "bombs" or "high up and unders"
(b) attempts to score a drop/field goal...

"'Chip' punts, grubber kicks and kicks for touch (subject to Law 14) are permissible.".

Brad Levy
ARLD