Mawson shed Wednesday 9th July, 2008

Mawson shed Wednesday 9th July, 2008
Originally uploaded by AusRef

Copywrite 2008 David Maskell

Mawson shed Wednesday 9th July, 2008

Mawson shed Wednesday 9th July, 2008
Originally uploaded by AusRef

Copywrite 2008 David Maskell

Kanga Cup '08 - The Final Whistle has been blown

Well the final whilst has been blown for Kanga Cup 2008. I'm back sitting in the Waratah Lodge and sipping on some of Lynda's "coffee" whilst around me excited voices are heard, hugs given and recieved, pictures taken and lots of happy excited match offials

A huge day at Greenway, with grand finals since 1pm. Finally a nice sunny day as well, after almost a week of poor weather. I was transport guy for the morning, going to Wanamassa for early morning drop offs with 11 officials and Paul. Mid morning I collected Linda and Norm and heading to Greenway. Another few shuttles and I was back to watch Nick M. do his line (not bad for a 13yo 1st year Canberra ref doing U/12GF).

A few games went the full monty to penalties, but generally a good day with only a few cautions and no reds. Seems this was a trend also at McKellar and Deacon.

Back at the Lodge by 8:40 or thereabouts. Daniel M. thanked everyone for their efforts, acknowledged the award winners.

Norm was awarded with a football signed by all here (well almost all here, I didn't get to sign it!!!) in a nice case - good luck getting it on the plane. It was actually presented at the Hub by Capital Football earlier in the day, along with Referee of the Year type awards. But there was no one from the refereeing crew there as everyone was on games far and wide. Back at the Lodge tonight he was also awarded a 10 year whistle, a stuffed Kangaroo and a nice bottle of something for his service to the referees by David L. A good speech (Norm is rarely short of words) and a really nice way to end the formal part of Kanga


Grand Finals
Girls 18 Cup - Jen Hollis was awesome (she told me to say this, as she's hot and is sitting right next to me)
Boys 18 Cup - Christian - It went to 28 penalties (14-13)- Useless prat who could get a result in regulation time - No wonder he got Referee of the Tournament!!!!!

Other Final Noteables
The South Korean team walked over the opposition like last year 8-1
The A League trophy was at McKella and the officials were able to hold it

I started this blog about 2 hours ago - now after 1am, so really not able to write much further. Lots of U/18's still watching DVD's, playing GTA4. Paul has just gone to bed, Norm a bit earlier and I'm likely to follow soon. All the O/18's are out on the town, making me feel old before my time. Tommorrow promises a ref's match at 10:30am somewhere locally, then onto the Jets -v- Mariners game. I'm going to decide in the morning if I stay - there is a option to stay and go back Sunday.

Overall a different but good Kanga

Lynda say's hi to everyone

Night Kanga Cup followers

Ruralref (On assignement on Kanga Cup '08)

Day 2 - Strong performances and less rain

Its hellishy late and I'd dead dog tired, but heres tonights summary

60 inspections completed in 2 days by 4 coaches - a new World Record?
Coaches meeting tonight to firm up some panels for selection for finals games. We will have more input into the actual finals appointments tommorrow night before Thursdays finals as posted.
Everyone else was at bowling tonight - 2 games and nuggets and chips for dinner. Not much feedback on the quality of bowling, but everyone enjoyed the chance to have a Mac Attack afterwards

Today's overall performances were excellent to outstanding across the board. Lots of good control, man management and positive feedback from coaches and parents alike. Some confusion over long leg skins was brought up and will be resolved tommorrow before games - Word on the stree is that they are allowed provided they are the same colour as the shorts. Kambah had no send offs and everyone seemed to enjoy the day - rain fell lightly in the last 30 minutes only, so a nice day by all accounts for July in Canberra.

Noteable performances by David L, Paul J and lots of admusement watching the Sth Koren U/12 side warming up before killing the opposition 20-0

Lots of tired kids here at the Waratah Lodge tonight and most have crawled into bed. Hoping to see some more guys who haven't been coached tommorrow at Mawson and enjoy another full day at Kanga Cup '08.

Note: Picture are taking too long to upload via this connection. I will continue to collect them and upload in a large batch either later in the week if I can get to a bigger pipe or upon my return to Victoria. Sorry if your hanging out for pics.

Going to bed..... Christian, Dave L and Jen are the last of the hangers on in the meeting area.

Ruralref (On Assignment at Kanga Cup '08)

Rain Rain and More Rain – It must be Kanga Cup Day 1!

Day 1 of Kanga Cup competition finally dawned early but not bright. With rain in the forecast, everyone rugged up for a wet day and for once the forecast was right on. Some early showers before the first ball was kicked in anger, but it was clear at Kambar (where I was) for the first 2 games of the day. But by 1pm the heavens had opened up finally and water fell from the sky in bucket loads. But our brave crowd of locals and interstate officials battled on and the day was completed without too much drama.

Standouts for the day included the following

Greg T. controlling Boys 16 with great confidence and two send offs in a scrappy hard fought game on both sides
Nick M. showing brilliant assistant referee duties for a new local referee
Karan K. having lots of fun on Girls 16 in what essentially was a lake by 2:30pm

Reports from other fields indicated that Norm had his annual U/11 game and was quoted as instructing the two teams (who walked on slowly) that “this is how I want you all to run during the game”

Darren Q. had the story of the day. Play was stopped whilst a local Chinese lady with a walker crossed the field of play. Darren was on the line and asked if the lady could kindly leave the FOP. The lady responded that it was “ok as play had stopped” and she was heading home, across the field. Darren then attempted to help her across quicker by turning the wheels of her walker towards the nearest sideline, only to be told to stop as “that isn’t the direction to my home”. Much applause followed the physical performance of what had occurred before the gather interstate refs during tonight’s debrief.

Rain is forecast again for tomorrow with max of 9 degrees. I say bring it on Kanga Cup!!!!

Opening Ceremony and other adventures at the AIS

Well another day at Kanga Cup is over and what a day it was. The day started at the AIS doing a tour. Our tour guide was Travis, a scholarship holder in football touring around all the interstate referees. And as it turned out, was also a player in his earlier life with Christian – it’s a small world in football sometimes.
Everyone was impressed with the new $17 million Olympic training pool where the coaches can instruct the swimmers whilst they are swimming via an underwater speaker system. We viewed the Olympic women’s gymnastic team in training before trials and final selection for the Olympic team.

By 10:30am the tour was through and coffee was sought out for the coaches before the seminar with Clive MacKillop, State Coach for Capital Football. Clive covered some issues from past Kanga Cups and emphasized teamwork on the field, cooperation from the assistant referees. Clive gave everyone some homework for the week to focus on:

Control of the game
Management of players and officials
Foul recognition
Positioning – was the decision correct, were you in the best position to make the correct position
Fitness
Enjoy the week
Respect the people who are coaching you – they coach for the love of the game

All good concepts and were received well by the interstate referees in attendance. A short break for a coaching meeting and then the briefing for all officials took place, conducted by Daniel Murphy.

A lovely long break then occurred, where the interstate ref’s took over the local synthetic field for a quick game of football! Nick S. sent off for DOGSO in controversial manner. D. Quinnlan also sent off for second caution, first for simulation. D. Lockridge also cautioned for simulation. K. Johnston was referee for this unsanctioned fixture and most likely will appear before management next week.

As a side note, the referee scored a “classic” goal. Final score, 3-1 to the coloured shirt team featuring referee as captain.

After a prolonged wait for the players to enter the stadium (4:30pm), the referee’s entry to the Opening Ceremony was accompanied with polite applause and a few whistle blows from the members. Tim Clarke, local 15yo referee took the oath of Fair Play on behalf of the officials. Paul J. critique of the Bollywood dancers rated poorly to middling but it was all over quickly and thankfully.
We got out of dodge as quick as was humanly possible after picking up Josh who had arrived with the team from Coughs Harbour.

Tonight is being spent quietly watching various DVD’s and perhaps the F1GP later, if I can get control of the TV – I may send them to bed early as games start tomorrow.
Hope to post pictures tomorrow when I can get a better connection.

David (Ruralref, on assignment at Kanga Cup ’08)

Arrival Day

Thanks Scotty for setting this up. I'm currently at the YHA internet cafe downtown as once again there seems to be no internet access at the Bush Lodge - Fixed by Monday I'm told, but I wont hold my breath.

Well I arrived at the Lodge just after 6:20pm to find it empty - everyone had gone already to the Lecture with Tammy Ogston which was held at the AIS lecture hall. Small turn up, mostly interstate guys attending which was a shame as it was a great opportunity to have a insight into the career of potentially our highest ranked official (Tammy did the Womens World Cup Final in 2007). Also attending and presenting was Alison (can't remember her last name) and the ACT State Coach (name also not available).

Back to the lodge - new and improved in the Waratah section we stayed in last year. Big open space, more rooms and the coaches are in a room off the main area (Hope I can get some sleep). I've setup my laptop and data projector - everyone wanted Family Guy but unforunately I wasn't able to find them before leaving this morning from Eildon.
When I left a few of the younger guys were shooting it up on my PS3 Call of Duty 4 style and the girls (about 8 I believe) were watching a DVD.

Lynda and her daughter Jess arrived late but got the place jumping. Christian also arrived late and most of the older guys are out on the town.

Early morning run perhaps tommorrow - I'm back in training.

I'll take some pics at the seminar tommorrow and post them to the flicker account. Hope this works

David (Ruralref on assignment at Kanga Cup)

2008

Well as you'd all know by now, I won't be there this year... but David has kindly offered to keep the tradition of keeping you all in the loop about the tournament by blogging here about what goes on during the week! Feel free to comment his posts here and make sure you check out the Flickr gallery where you can also comment on photos taken during the week.

If you want to add your photos to the gallery just email them to me and they'll go straight up.

Enjoy KC08!