Three local match officials recently attended the 2016 Northern NSW Football Talented Officials Program (TOP) Camp in Coffs Harbour, held over the long weekend of the 11th to 13th June.
Aidan Downs, Blake Penhey and Davis Whitney attended the camp, which is run in conjunction with the Northern NSW Football Telstra Boys State Championships, and they received elite referee coaching from NNSWF’s Premier Competition Match Official Coordinator, Brad Carlin and from other referee coaching staff.
The camp is a great chance for young referees from all seven NNSWF member zones to develop their skills, knowledge and performance. As well as the theoretical coaching that the match officials receive during the camp, they also officiate on Telstra State Championships matches that involve over 250 of Northern NSW’s best young male footballers.
FFNC Match Officials Development Officer, Anthony Smith said, “the camp is one of many pathways that exist within NNSWF for match officials and provides our local match officials an opportunity to gain further feedback about their refereeing and learn skills to assist their development as a match official. It’s great for individual referees to be able to attend events like this and I expect the boys have learnt alot from the experience, which they can now bring back to help at a local level.”
