Introduction

Random and unofficial insights and happenings at Football Tournaments nationally from the officials perspective

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Clattenburg arrives in Brisbane

Evening everyone,

Well it's finally happened, after ten years of work to get him here by Ted Kearney, Mark Clattenburg has landed and was in the QSAC Javelin meeting room earlier this evening in Brisbane, mixing it up with the local Football Brisbane senior referees during their regular July Coaching night.

Ted Kearney and Mark Clattenburg
A good turnout of 70 local referees arrived early and filled the venue, in anticipation of both seeing and hearing from Mark, who flew up from Melbourne today after last nights #ICC match.

Mark's schedule whilst here is action packed - His presenting a day long seminar Thursday at the Sleeman Sports Centre to a capacity crowd of referees (with participants from New Zealand and across Australia flying in)
Paul Smith and some of the NZ crew
Presenters with Mark include Eddie Lennie  (FIFA / AFC Instructor / Assessor, Football Wests Referee Development Manager), Krys Szokolai (FIFA & AFC Assessor / Instructor), covering a range of topics (Respect, Dissent, Player Management, Requirements of Elite Referees, Fitness, Positioning, Foul Recognition)

Friday has Mark attending the U/15 Queensland Schools State Titles at Tivoli, no doubt creating some excitement for the Future Elite referees in the making.  He has an official dinner engagement then a Charity Golf Day on Saturday, resting up for Sunday's big game at Lions Stadium 4pm.

Tonight Mark took part in drawing out the Assistant Referees and 4th Official for the match from within the Select Group of referees in Brisbane, an excellent experience for those selected to work with someone at the top of their game in the EPL

Whilst tonight's meet and greet was very informal and Mark wasn't expected to be presenting, he was still keen to get involved in the discussions about "The A in Assistant Referee", facilitated by Ashley and helping groups to determine what "Great" assistant referees roles look like.
Cameron and Mark brainstorming

His insights (and a few EPL stories) provided both fresh perspectives to many in the room and contained very down to earth advice, even indicating at one point that "Keeping it Simple" is his takeaway from the evenings discussions and debate.  Really great to see that even though his one of the biggest names in the Football family, his really approachable and willing to be involved at grass roots level on a Wednesday night in suburban Brisbane with some of the local "weekend warriors".

Welcome to Brisbane Mark, enjoy your stay and have a great game on Sunday - I think the biggest group there will be cheering for the #thirdteam

And big shoutout to Ted and his friendship with Mark in getting him in the room - it's my biggest takeaway tonight (aside from this blog post / lots of pictures).  

Ted and Mark
It's the enduring nature of the positive relationships and strong friendships we all can make as referees during our journey around the field that has allowed Mark's visit to occur (and of course the ICC tournament helped).

Many of the strongest memories in my life are around the highs and lows of refereeing, almost always shared by supportive #thirdteam members, coaches, mentors and friends, who without being a refereeing colleague our paths would never have crossed.

Robert Frost (who must have blown a whistle once) said it best

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."


I believe many peoples interactions with Mark during the next few days will make a significant positive difference in their careers and ideas around officiating, in not in their life generally, whether your next on the FIFA list, fighting for attention as a Possible or Probable or just enjoying the Sunday City League tussle weekly.  And that is the REAL value in why we do what we do every weekend.

Thanks Ted for inviting your friend and using your network, it'll be a weekend to remember.

Photos from tonight can be found on here on my Flickr account - feel free to cross post to FB - further updates over the next few days as I get time.





Sunday, July 5, 2015

2015 Kanga Cup - Saturday only 7 hours to go!!!!

Hey everyone,

Been a while since I visited the blogging world, busy with life I guess.  But as they say "we're back baby" for a bigger and better KangaCup 2015 or #KangaCup25 (it's the 25th occasion of Kanga Cup), so I'm trying to attempt to get it trending this week.

Busy day as always and it's already late, so just a few shoutouts of significance for those playing along at home

Everyone arrived safe, with referees from New Zealand taking the scenic route via Melbourne - pictures to follow when Smithy gives them to me in the morning

Longest traveled referee goes to Oskar, from Hong Kong via William Lai, coaching alumni and regular "visitor" on Grand Final Friday.  Rumor has it William will make an appearance on Thursday - your coaching sheets are ready William and we expect minimum of 10 before lunch completed please... Oskar is the first international referee back to the tournament in several years and seems to be fitting in already, so Welcome.
Bonus points for anyone who can name the last international (NZers don't count) referee.

A visit and tour to the Australia War Memorial before dinner, some fun icebreakers at the AIS involving skittles and Post-it notes (bill in your tray Alasdair) then back for the obligatory and now traditional 2014 in Review video - Lots of photobombing in 2014 by a cast member of the upcoming Mary Poppings and references to coffee consumption, plus the sound was double speed so it was the House version. I'll post when I've fixed the spelling errors, thanks David

Pictures on Flickr as normal, thanks to Scott Ferguson www.ausref.com for continued support of a photographic archive of Kanga Cup referees going back 11 years, unprecedented in youth tournament history.

Tomorrow we get to catch up with old friends from Capital Football and make new ones at the annual seminar, technical training (I'm running some sort of chasing the ball thing???), some shopping opportunities then onto the opening ceremony at the Stadium - I hope to live stream the event via Periscope whilst my hotspot lasts, so join us sometime after 3pm for all the action.  First time trying it, so I believe you can watch via a web browser  live if you don't have the app or download the app and join the conversation.  Follow me on the Twitter link @KangaCupRef

Guest speaker to be confirmed, details tomorrow.

Excited to be back and it's looking to be another great, if not cold week here in Canberra.

39 referees, 8 interstate / international coaches, 2 Capital Football coaches, 1 Capital Football Logistics guru all tucked up asleep - as am I in 10 minutes.

Might get up early and watch the Womens World Cup 3rd playoff at 6am - go England