Lack of recruitment
Lack of education
Lack of referee trainers around the state
Limited to nil investment put into development

Stadiums have NO BSA support from officials development, it is left up to stadiums to do recruitment and training, with no clear pathway or development module to follow for BSA.

How much money has been spent of referee recruitment campaigns?? None. Dont spend the money - dont get the results simple. They except people to walk off the street to referee. When the people get there they are met with whilst friendly staff, limited education and training, no development of their ability, and the either end up in 'the system' (the pool of referees that are mostly randomly selected for games on a friday night), with no further development. The only training that is done is the once a year "rush them all through and find a accreditation and the bottom of the weetbix carton" methods. As long as it looks like some people are doing their job on a report or bit of paper thats good enough for them.

The method of rostering referees on ability is long gone, due to the absolute lack of recruitment done over many years, it is now on the basis of 'who is available' - regardless of if the roserter even knows who the referee is! It is just names in a database, and games to fill.

Until there is actual MONEY spent on actual RESOURCES for referee development - not relying on 'good-willed people' and people volunteering for little to no money to help educate our referees - nothing will change.

While I agree that an increase in pay may attract more people to refereeing, it doesn't breed the right mentality. The people you want refereeing are (here comes the cliche) the people that do it for the love of the game.

The people that just enjoy the game and want to be a part of it via refereeing are the people who;
a, get better because they have the interest and the drive to be involved at a higher level and
b, who eventually leave because of the lack of development, the politics at the top and the frustration of it all.

Money needs to be spent of training but not on increasing the pay rates or referees because this only brings in the young referees because they can earn a dollar for having a run around and they are 'protected'.

Personally, since I left refereeing, one of the biggest issues I have seen in this state is the lack of communication between players coaches and referees. There are very few younger referees who are approachable. This is the first thing they should be taught as if you actually communicate what you are doing, people are more likely to give you a bit of leeway.

End of Rant

Ah umpires and refs where would we be without them. To BSA it's time you reviewed your practices regarding ump/ref's because the teams and players esp at Junior levels reap what you do not tend to.
I understand that finding umpires for games is hard enough as it is but I see heaps of juniors taking up umpiring more than likely for $$ and being left to their own devices, often two juniors on a game with little or no supervision, again I understand its hard for the UIC to be everywhere but on a regular basis umpires and some referees are allowed to operate with no fear of being rated or reviewed.

Referees that are aiming for panel have games assessed and even then they are fully aware of who and when it occurs. All umpires and referees should have KPI's, regular external assessments and feedback, it's to hard for court IUC's and senior refs close to them to really do a quality review it needs to be an external experienced eye.. And please educate umpires that being loyal to the club they play for is not what being professional is about, umps/refs should be rotated to assist in building profiles friendships and not picking on rival clubs.. Everyone knows it happens you turning a blind eye to it doesn't help..

rant/