Isaac
Years ago

Referee Steve Bignell to retire

The NBL has copped a bit of criticism this season for the standard of the refereeing and you have to wonder if the retirement of a veteran could impact that.

Steve Bignell will retire at the end of the season.

Bignell ranks sixth on the NBL's all-time list for games refereed, having officiated in 595 games since joining the league's panel of referees in 1983. His first game as an NBL ref was on 13 February 1983 when he officiated the match between the Adelaide 36ers and the Bankstown Bruins at Bankstown.

The veteran will officiate around the country in a number of remaining regular season fixtures and then participate in the NBL Finals series before hanging up his whistle for good.

Before he retires, Bignell has one last milestone to reach. He remains on track to officiate his 600th game before his final appearance and will join Bill Mildenhall, Ray Hunt, Eddie Crouch, Geoff Weeks and Roger Shiels as the only people ever to reach that lofty mark.

More at the NBL site

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Anonymous
Years ago

Might have to retire sooner then planned after limping around the court tonight.

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Mantis
Years ago

I was waiting for them to call for the screen.

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Mutley
Years ago

Even hobbled he was better than Geoff Weeks has been this season.

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Robbo
Years ago

Congratulations to a ref who has obviously given a lot of service to the NBL...

BUT why the fcuk wasn't he replaced when he injured himself?

He was clearly unable to make good positioning for calls, particularly the fouls called on Ng (3rd qtr) and Burdon's blocking foul on Dmac (4th qtr).

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Kobe24
Years ago

Yeah weather he was able to continue doing his job tonight or not with consistancy, simply looked unprofessional having him hobble from end to end.

NBL needs to get this sort of thing right....

Need I open the can of worms on why all of a sudden Julius Hodge is wearing the #0? Finally has his name on it! To take that long to get such a small 1% type thing right, the league should fine teams. No room for 'untidy' uniforms in a already struggling competition as far as gaining new fans.

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Isaac
Years ago

League's uniform sponsor cut their deal mid-season. A few clubs have had players running around without their names on singlets.

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Kev
Years ago

I thought that it was up to each team to negotiate a contract for uniforms?
Brisbane has those ugly Hoop2Hoop uniforms, NZ use kiwi-based Sports and Uniform, West Sydney use Soul Sports, Melbourne, South Melbourne, Cairns, Townsville and Wollongong use Kombat, and Adelaide, Sydney, Gold Coast and Singapore use ISC.

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ANON12
Years ago

Steve has been an asset to the NBL and basketball throughout Australia. Unfortunately last night he appears to have torn his medial ligament and may indeed have ended his career short of his 600th game which is a great shame.
On the note of a replacement referee, the NBL does not have a policy of having an extra referee at a game in case of an emergency. I believe they did at one stage have this policy but for whatever reason (?money) the policy no longer appears to exist. Unfortunate given the case that a qualified referee was at the game assisting the Referee Evaluator but didn't have any gear with him.
Maybe the NBL need to re-evaluate this policy?

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Anonymous
Years ago

No need to re-evaluate the policy. Why pay for an emergency referee when you've got the option of just reverting to a two-man system if one of them has to pull out?

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FM
Years ago

I thought converting to two man was the policy.

Reply #169159 | Report this post

sabignell
Years ago

Hi Mum hi Dad im at school. See ya.

Reply #196733 | Report this post

Hoops

Referee Steve Bignell to retire

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