SPECIAL RELEASE:
Q&A with Cameron Tradell | Australian Sports Commission

Hello friends,

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) recently launched the Community Officiating Essential Skills Course. Made up of 7 modules that are free and can be completed online, the ASC has emphatically signalled the importance of providing education and support for match officials. 

Writing for Club Respect, Patrick Skene chats with the ASC's Director of Coaching and Officiating, Cameron Tradell, about adapting to the changing world of community sport and recognising the critical role of match officials in shaping the overall sporting experience. 

The conversation will be presented in two parts.

Here are my favourite quotes from their conversation: 

• "We've become so focused on recruiting and sometimes we forget about retention so we open up the front door and they all pour in but we forget to close the back door, so they just pour out."

• "Support is crucial and making officials more resilient isn't the answer. It's about how we put the support mechanisms around them to ensure that we authentically look after them."

• "When I say a 'line in the sand moment', it means everything we do from now on as we move forward will be using this modern approach."

Check it out here: A line in the sand for match officials: Q&A with Cameron Tradell

Tarik Bayrakli
Manager, Club Respect

A line in the sand for match officials: Q&A with Cameron Tradell (Part 1)
By Patrick Skene

"The beauty is that it was driven by the Australian Sports Commission, but also, by the sector. We’ve gone out to so many stakeholders who have said things have changed, that we need different support. They really helped us.

So we worked closely with a lot of the sports and that’s not just big sports but sports of all sizes and we’re talking about judging, talking about officiating on field, talking about the links between an active role an official plays in something like an AFL or a football where you’re more closely linked to an athlete and officiating roles when you’re a judge like a cricket umpire where you’re a little bit more static.

We talked about the nuances of officiating their sports and how they need to be serviced. And we built it in collaboration with the sector with over 45 Sports contributing. And that’s what we wanted the videos and the stories within that to reflect."

We respectfully acknowledge the wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their custodianship of the lands and waterways.