The NSWRL’s Junior Representative competitions will get underway in early 2026, and the Referees Development Squad have kicked off their preparations for the season ahead with a recent training camp in Mudgee.
With more than 80 participants taking part in the two-day camp, Community Football Referees Development Officer, Gavin Badger, was particularly pleased by the strong intake compared to other seasons.
It comes a few years on from two COVID-affected years (2020-21) which impacted the development of young players and aspiring match officials.
“This year is the biggest one (camp) we’ve had for a long time with new referees,” Badger said.
“I think it’s just readjusted out of COVID. A couple of years out of COVID it was hard to bring anyone else in because there was no football, so I think we’re back where we need to be.
“We’ve got 31 new referees trialling for that squad, so there’s been a fair turnover this year.”
The camp, which was held last month, marks the beginning of the pre-season training program for each participant, culminating with selections for the 2026 Development Squad prior to the Junior Reps season.
The camp also involved 18 coaches from across the NSW Referees Association and other associations, working on a range of technical skills and communication as well as fitness. It also provides an important opportunity for regionally based officials to join their metropolitan counterparts in a face-to-face training environment.
“The metro squad members will come and train with us every week (at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence), whereas the regionally based squad are remote – they’ll jump onto our Zoom meetings on training nights, but we don’t have access for them to do skills training,” Badger explained.
“So at the camp we try as much as we can to put the regional group through some skills training, and just some interaction with the rest of the squad to build that connection.
“There can be a fair bit in it (technical skills and video work), but with the two days that we have them for, we don’t want to overburden them with information either.
“Because we’ve got so many new referees, particularly coming out of district football into development squads and high performance squads, there’s a lot of differences in how we referee and some rule changes. So we went through more of that than all the technical aspects and watching a lot of video.”
Along with learning the physical standards and other requirements for being a match official, a key aspect of the camp is team building and connectedness.
Badger himself sees it as a critical part of his role and what the camp aims to achieve.
“It’s a massive part of what we do actually (team building),” Badger said.
“Throughout the camp there’s a lot of interaction between groups at different times, then we can look over that and see who the leaders are or who we can push a bit more to build those connections.
“It's the whole focus of our camp because it's not just connections within our group, it's then connecting with all the stakeholders of our game; the ground managers, coaches or anyone you come across.
“If they can build connections now, it’s better for their life going forward.”
