Football NSW Match Officials a success at Nationals
The Tournament is conducted over four days and brings together the best youth players and match officials from across the country.
For the first time in memory the NSW contingent have dominated both age groups with the Champions v the All Stars game featuring no less than 4 of 8 NSW officials.
Adrian Arndt (referee) and Leigh Pigram (assistant referee 1) were appointed to the Under 15?s and James Tesoriero (assistant referee 1) and Aaron McNab (4th official) the Under 14?s.
The fifth NSW participant, Grant South, wasn?t too far behind his colleagues and refereed a tournament defining, final group stage game on the last day.
All of the NSW participants were ranked in the top 5 of their respective age groups, which is a remarkable feat on its own.
The referee are all part of products of the FNSW Elite Development Program and have also attended additional high performance training sessions conducted by the State Technical Committee in an effort to better prepare the officials for the intense week of competition.
John Parker, the State Technical Committee?s member responsible for coordinating and conducting the pre-tournament training sessions said, ?The results are a testament to the hard work and dedication shown by the referees and is vindication of the training program and overall value it has for all referees in NSW!?
These tournaments have traditionally been dominated by other States but since FNSW has invested heavily in the coaching and development of referees from the grass roots through to the potentially elite, the tide has been slowly turning back in favour of NSW officials.
This result comes on the previously reported success of the female contingent who represented NSW at the National Championships for Girls, held in July.
The future of refereeing in NSW looks very bright with these very talented match officials leading the way.
Again FNSW and the broader football family joins together and congratulates these referees on their achievements and wishes them all the success for the future.
