Northern NSW Football (NNSWF) is pleased to announce the formation of two new and significant steps in the youth referee development pathway across the region with the establishment of a Youth Referee Academy and a Youth Referee Talent Pool.
In spite of the success of the NNSWF Talented Official Program (TOP) Camps, it was identified that additional programs were needed to continue to develop the match officials after their participation at the TOP Camps ends.
The Youth Referee Academy will comprise the best performing males and females each year at the TOP Camps and the NNSWF Champion of Champions Tournament (which will become an advanced youth referee development camp).
The Academy match officials will receive special coaching from a specialist referee coach to be appointed by NNSWF. The role of the coach will be to further advance their knowledge and skills, and help develop young, promising referees to a point to the point where they can be seriously considered to be chosen to go to the National Youth Championships. At this point, they would transition from the Youth Referee Academy to the Youth Referee Talent Pool.
The Youth Referee Talent Pool will comprise of the very best of the talented young referees across Northern NSW.
They will be developed by an alternate specialist coach will work with their coach with the aim of being selected to go to the next National Youth Championships. Once the referees for Nationals are selected, the coach will then continue to work with them so that the referees perform at their peak at Nationals.
Information about the Youth Referee Academy and the Youth Referee Talent Pool, their benefits to match official development, and how the state’s best performing young referees will be selected for them, is below:
More news will be announced early in 2019 about both new development groups, including the match officials selected to be the inaugural members of the Youth Referee Academy and the Youth Referee Talent Pool.
