It was great to see so many officials get the opportunity to travel to Cairns, Emerald and Ipswich for regional A grade carnivals over the weekend.
Referees involved included those on our development pathways mixed in with local officials who had the chance to upskill alongside them.
The benefit of those carnivals - XXXX Foley Shield, XXXX Chairman's Challenge and XXXX 4th Battalion - for our officials is that it’s a step up from week-in, week-out community level A grade and it’s a reward for the hard work that they do.
Without volunteer match officials and organisers like Michael Inman (QRL Central) and Alan Bain (QRL North), working in conjunction with our NRL referee development officers, those regional carnivals wouldn’t run as well as they do.
More opportunities are emerging for developing referees so they can progress and reach their goals, with the launch of the RISE program specifically for match officials.
More information will be shared through our Brisbane, Ipswich, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast member associations this week for the pilot program, which will run for six weeks.
With assistance from the NRL, we’ve adapted the program delivered to players and coaches to bring those RISE principles into officiating, specifically targeting our second and third-year referees so they can transition from under six to 12 footy into international laws games.
It’s an opportunity not just for match officials but also for referee coaches to become RISE coaches to upskill themselves by running these hubs.
I think it will be valuable to teach our match officials resilience, which they need in officiating, just being able to bounce back week-in week-out being in football. It can be a hard slog with ups and downs.
The wellbeing component I think is really important as well, not just in rugby league generally but especially in the referee space relating to all the different challenges we face and give them a chance to better understand the building blocks of refereeing.
We’ve already taken steps to look after our members with QRL staff Andrew Wareham and Emma Maguire recently becoming Support Squad volunteers and being equipped with more tools to be able to look after referee mental health.
The goal is to have at least one Support Squad person per association in the next 12 months to support the grassroots referees who arguably have a harder job than those in our high performance squad.
