Page 15 - Rugby League World (February 2020)

PHOTOGRAPHY: SWPixVIS, ARCHIVE
PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX DA
We took a trip to the Lake District in
January, right in the middle of Storm
Brendan, to see how our whistle-
blowers are put through their paces on
a pre-season team building exercise for
referees.
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TALKING POINT
worked hard to get themselves into shape,
P RE-SEASON is ending. All the teams have
instil team values and build skill levels ready
for the new season in a new decade.
The refereeing group are no different.
We've seen Leeds Rhinos head out on a
warm-weather training camp in Spain this year, but
Steve Ganson and the rest of the refereeing coaching
staff have done something very different.
With the bulk of the fitness work already done, the
referees headed up to Coniston in the Lake District for
a team building event and I couldn't resist butting in
and having a look.
"We're taking them out of their comfort zone, so
you find people out," coach Phil Bentham, one of four
under Ganson, explains.
"We get to identify people that are looking pretty
good and have a good attitude. They might be
somebody we're looking at as a potential elite-group
referee and then we also see traits in people that we
need to develop within them."
With ten elite-group referees in the system heading
into the new season and a whole host of emerging-
group referees, a key part of the retreat is to integrate the
two groups so come match-day when both elite-group
and emerging-group referees are required, everyone
feels comfortable working with each other as Chris
Kendall, 2019's Grand Final referee describes.
"This is the opportunity, especially for the elite
group, to get to know the emerging group who you'll
be working with week to week on a personal level
rather than a professional level.
"We're getting used to each other and while we're
here, when we get put into our mini groups, you're
working with different people and you're all wanting
to get to an end goal. That's very much how it is on the
field. You want to get to an end goal of the game going
as well as it possibly can."
The referees had an action-packed and challenging
itinerary for the week. Storm Brendan meant plans
were fluid but the group undertook orienteering in
the driving wind and rain, working together in large
boats to retrieve clues around a lake, sailing, hiking
up to and staying at the top of a mountain in a hut
whilst also brushing up on refereeing policy and
taking in talks from Paul Cullen on the role of the
independent match review panel and Chris Foy, a
former professional football referee.
I had the privilege of tailing the group on the opening
day as they tackled the orienteering. Conditions
weren't great but kitted out, the group had 48 points
tokens to find at 20 different points in the forest.
Experienced referees Ben Thaler and Robert Hicks took
the lead on deciding how to split up the group after a
couple had shot off in search of the tokens.
Mud, even more wind and rain and a graceful
tumble from myself, awarded a score of seven by
Kendall, followed. After a couple of hours all but one
of the tokens had been found surely leading to a great
night somewhere down the line. Sadly, not for me, as I
had to drive home later the same day.
This was the glamorous part of pre-season for the
group. The elite-group refs have been subjected to a
rigorous programme, not unlike the players who will
take to the pitch with them in February, by former
Leeds Rhinos player turned conditioner Ian Kirke.
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WORLD