North West referee's given major boost

22nd September 2008

Rugby league referees across the North West have been given a major boost after more than £26,000 was recently awarded to the region’s Match Officials Societies.

The funding, which has come from the National Lottery’s ‘Awards for All’ and the Halton Youth Bank, will help to pay for training aids, equipment and video analysis, with local match officials seeing the benefits almost instantly.

Four of the region’s seven Match Officials Societies have been successful in applying for funding, with the remaining three expected to put forward strong applications in the near future.

Simon Barrie, secretary of the St Helens Match Officials Society, said: “The recruitment and retention of match officials is an essential element of enabling the sport of rugby league to expand.

“St Helens Rugby League Referees Society is grateful to the National Lottery Awards for All program for granting the society essential funding to improve our training facilities and enable us to put additional efforts into marketing the role of becoming a match official within the local community.”

Match officials figures across the whole of the North West have risen by more than 31 per cent since January 2007, while the Leigh Match Officials Society has seen its membership numbers swell by more than 65 per cent in the same period.

The recent funding was gained after hard work and co-operation between the Match Officials Societies’ committee members and the RFL’s match officials development officers.

Peter Brooke, the RFL’s North West match officials development officer, said: “The securing of funding for Match Officials Societies is a necessary step forward to improve the standards of officials within the game.

“Match Officials Societies recognise the fact that to improve they need to effectively plan and make good use of technology.

“One example of this could be video matches in order to specifically analyse the referee, with the recording being shared and discussed as a group to help all the referees in that particular society to improve.”

Mr Brooke added: “Utilising technology to the best of their ability will ensure that continuous development and ongoing recruitment of Match Officials within societies in maintained.

“We continue to see a big improvement of the standards of officials in the regional leagues and this funding will serve to maintain the strong improvement and create further success.”

The four societies that have been successful in securing funding will now share their experiences and best practice in order to maximise the chances of further applications from other Match Officials Societies being accepted.