Well this is it, the big one, pretty much my raison d'être in Australia and what I've been gearing up to since I arrived back in November. I nominated for my referee accreditation upgrade at NTL and hope to come away wearing a red badge (or at least a recommendation to be awarded one). It's interesting trying to digest how my standards & expectations of myself have evolved because I find myself feeling that the European red (Level 4 from 5) will no longer satisfy me - though that's the only badge I can wear as I remain in the European system - secretly I hope to be told that I am of a good enough standard on-field for the Australian red (Level 5 from 6), which is a higher grade.
Thursday 19th February
Better pack water wings...
The venue is Port Macquarie, not Coffs Harbour as has been traditional in previous years. Having said that I'm not sure the venue would have mattered due to all the very heavy rains & flooding. This is how the Tuffins Lane fields currently lie about 3 weeks out from NTL. The walkway of that bridge is under about a foot of water so the back fields must be under almost 1 foot and we're talking about a BIG area here. The weather isn't showing any promise of improving either so I'll be interested to see how things pan out.
Tuesday 10th March
What is it about Touch and rising at the crack of dawn?
I had a decidedly unpleasant 6am start to get down to the Greyhound Coach terminal at Central Station - not a bad thing in hindsight as it set me up for getting up at similarly unsociable times for the rest of the week. Pretty uneventful road trip not that I'd know much about it having slept most of the way! Got to the motel not too long after Badge, Milo and Luke, so after unpacking quickly we headed off to the mall to get some lunch and stock up on groceries. The atmosphere is good, Dave has already fixed his hair twice and the banter is flying... it's going to be fun rooming with these guys.
You know how establishments like hotels and restaurants sometimes put out a sign welcoming large groups? Well this place was no different and I wish I'd taken a photo. The sign in question (hand-written on a white board) went something like this: Ki-ea Apartments welcomes NTL 2009 "Referees". Not seeing the joke? Re-read and pay attention to the quotation marks...
The pre-tournament referees' dinner took place that evening and this was another moment in my refereeing career here where I just had to stop, look around and appreciate where I was and the company I was in: 120 of the best Touch referees and arguably THE top 15 referee coaches on the PLANET. I found myself thinking of various (Touch) countries back in Europe - just for example Germany by my last approximation had about 120 players of which about 15 were in the refereeing system at some level - and I'm certainly not wishing to imply anything negative about Touch in Europe, far from it. The simple fact is that the game in Australia has been developing for almost 40 years while it is infant all over Europe - there are people in this room (and not in it but whom I've run with) who have served the game for up to 25 years. I just turned 30.
Wednesday 11th March
Day 1 and only senior grades play today - open grades begin tomorrow. The scary thing is "senior" grades here start at the 27 age bracket! That's much less of a concern for me though than the condition of the fields, which I've had a chance to check out as my first game isn't until later. Thanks to the recent weather they are, in a word, SHIT... completely waterlogged, marshy and in some cases still UNDER water. Even just walking tentatively about the place my feet are sinking into the ground and I think the trainers, strappers and physios may have a busy week ahead dealing with ankle and knee injuries.
Fields 1 (stadium) and 2 (adjacent), which remained above the water level, are in decent shape all things considered - still wet, but reasonably firm underfoot. I can foresee appointments being a potentially contentious issue as these field conditions will influence how we referees can perform. I'm only up against against the system for a badge upgrade and I'm concerned. I'm sure it's absolutely weighing more on the minds of people competing for rankings and finals appointments.
Got to the field for my first game and sure enough about half of it is under surface water and I'm wondering how this is going to go. I'd already overheard a story of one referee, in similar conditions, faced with a decision to award a change in possession for a "rollball more than 1m". The player had performed a valid rollball (on water, unfortunately for them) but the ball subsequently FLOATED off the mark! I can't remember what the outcome was but it's a great example of letter vs. spirit of the rules.
I will admit to initially being a little precious in my on-field movements in an attempt to avoid getting overly soaked & filthy but quickly came to the realization that an attitude of "snap out of it, suck it up and get stuck in" was required. So I did and was pleased to get at least that nonsense out of my head - now I could focus on my upgrade performance for the rest of the game and the day.
Come the afternoon though, I was feeling pretty deflated and down on myself. I felt I hadn't put in anywhere near the performance I knew I was capable of - thinking of my men's open semi in WA State Champs just 10 days prior, though that game was admittedly played on a flat, bone-dry field in glorious sunshine. One of my biggest assets as a referee has always been my pace and the fields here just nullified that - I'd plant my foot changing direction or pushing off to sprint only for the ground to leech onto my shoes and suck the energy from my legs. It was a real struggle to get good, early position & presence - never mind maintain it - and while my mind was preoccupied with that it began to lose focus on other aspects of the game. I really wasn't happy.
Thursday 12th March
Day 2 and I'm running in the first timeslot... on field 2. YYYES! This was my chance to have a really good hit out, hopefully with one of the [coaching] Panel watching. I got my wish, was pleased with how I ran and my coaching feedback indicated I'm back on track. Result!
My other games today were back out in the "swamp" as I am now referring to it, but despite the field numbers changing from yesterday (which made for some interesting pre-game scrambles!) and an intense mixed open on an absolute horror field, I was pleased with the day - not least because I was starting to feel myself thinking on-field to adapt what I was doing to the conditions and read the game better because I didn't have my pace as backup to get me out of a jam.
There are similarities in the Australian and Irish sense of humour... we both enjoy some good banter. I had a "senior" women's (it was 30s I think) this afternoon and if it wasn't enough that the half one of the 35s teams vacating the field after the previous game shamelessly flirted upon hearing my accent (no I'm not complaining and yes of course I played along!) one of the players responded to my, ahem, "encouragement" for higher effort to get back onside with something along the lines of "we're being deliberately slow because we like hearing you talk", followed by a wicked grin and a wink! You cheeky minx... Now I'm sure this isn't what the [coaching] Panel has in mind about building rapport with players but they continually talk about the importance of the OUTCOME over other things, so I'll just reach for that and smile innocently :-)
This morning I was also asked if I would do an interview for TFA so during the afternoon their communications interns returned to the referees' tent and I answered their questions. I'm wondering now what material they'll use and how it'll appear when written down... and yes I did conveniently forget to mention the previous story.
Friday 13th March
Happy birthday Mum - I'll be calling you later.
Day 3 - another 6am start - and I realised they'd already posted yesterday's interview* from comments on Facebook (God or Deity of your choice bless web-enabled mobile phones). Upon arrival at the grounds I had people saying to me I'd been mentioned on the radio which was a little surreal to be honest. I'll chalk it up to novelty value... first European referee at NTL (I think?) and, as I learned yesterday, the locals do seem to like an Irish accent.
* Apologies to Touch München the Bavarian Open was omitted from the written version. I'm absolutely convinced I spoke of it...
I've a similar schedule to yesterday with my first game on field 2 and the others in the swamp - though later on I would re-assess its condition as "bog" as it managed to drain and firm up a little.
Back to business. Upgrades will be announced tomorrow so today is my last chance
to impress and I intend to leave it all out there in this first game. I found myself doing a pre-game double-take when one captain introduced herself as Sharyn (Williams - Australian women's open captain who I've only ever seen on DVDs and heard described by words like "legend" and "star") but once that minor distraction was out of the way it was game face on & time to shine. I thought I put in a good performance - thankfully so did the Panel - so I was happy and relieved with my turnaround since Wednesday afternoon. Now all I can do is wait and hope I've done enough.Saturday 14th
Finals, Rankings, Appointments, Upgrades.
5:30am (yuck!) start today as the morning referee's meeting on the final day of an event customarily requires additional time - in addition to the usual information updates and fines session there is also the non-trivial matter of announcing badge upgrades, finals appointments and rankings - and since the match schedule won't start later, we have to start earlier.
As they started announcing Level 5 upgrades my confidence was up but it began to wane as badges left the table. I was not expecting to receive a badge - I'm not in the Australian system, remember - but I was hoping to at least hear my name.
With one Level 5 badge left on the table they moved on to Level 6 announcements. I just sat there quietly disappointed confused but still hoping - there's one badge left - could it be, however strange, that I might get some sort of special mention at the end?
Just two badges left on the table now - a 6 and a 5 - for a "unique, special moment to fi
nish" as we would have a simultaneous father and daughter upgrade - Rob and Rebecca Ward. I then realised that I hadn't noticed Bec's name wasn't called earlier and felt rather guilty about it, even selfish. She was a team mate, we were both going for our Level 5, we'd refereed together, supported and run water for each other. She also somehow managed to convince to jumping into an ice bath for the first time - an unconventional way to bond with someone but it worked! Despite feeling pretty crushed myself I was pleased to be part of the moment and just happy for her - I understood too well how she would have been feeling - before returning to my own little world as I had a game first timeslot and the meeting was now running over time.So I slipped away to tog out wondering how I would be able to concentrate with my mind at least distracted if not consumed trying to figure out where I blew it. I absolutely believed that I was at least as good as some of the other upgrades. Luke and then Badge - thank you guys - came to chat to me which did help me get some focus back and Badge (who was in fact my team leader) would arrange it so I'd get a coaching debrief ASAP.
This happened after lunch (after stewed for the morning and run two games) but by now I just was grateful to get it all. Jim chatted with me for about a half hour - thank you Jim - not just giving me feedback but answering all my technique and "how do I push on further?" related questions. Mission accomplished though - I'm good enough for the Australian Level 5 and the upgrade recommendation will be going back to Europe. RED BADGE BABY YEAH!
Time now to feel relieved, relax and enjoy the finals over a beer with mates - and reflect on the experience and journey this week has been.
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