On Friday evening, the group enjoyed a meal and social evening, with the opportunity to chat with many of the high profile guests including Premier League Referees Howard Webb, Mike Dean and Stuart Attwell. Conversations went on long into the night, before the main Conference the following day.
The Conference was opened by RA Secretary, Arthur Smith, who handed over to RA President, David Elleray, who introduced the guests and set the theme for the day “Getting it Right”. Premier League Referee Steve Bennett started Conference by looking at judging challenges, and how we arrive at a decision of whether a challenge is careless, reckless or uses excessive force. A great deal of debate followed amongst the audience before coming to a consensus for each of the clips shown.
Following Steve’s presentation attendees split into groups and had the opportunity to attend a number of workshops led by the guests. Premier League Referees Howard Webb and Stuart Attwell looked at Dealing with Confrontation, whilst Steve Bennett and Mike Dean looked at Critical Judgements in the Penalty Area. FIFA Assistant Referees Mike Mullarkey and Peter Kirkup presented a session on Offside Judgements whilst the PGMO’s Fitness Expert Simon Breivik discussed Fitness & Injury Prevention. Finally for the Assessors or those who wanted to find out more about assessing Premier League Assistant Referees Adam Watts and Suffolk’s own Simon Long presented a session on Assessing at Grassroots.
As the day neared a close the PGMO’s new Referee Manager, Mike Riley presented the keynote speech “Getting It Right”, with some thought provoking analysis of decisions made and how often they are right.
Conference was closed a short while later, with all eight Academy Referees heading home tired, but with new invaluable knowledge and experiences to help develop their own refereeing.