Advising game being observed
- Thread starter Twinblade
- Start date
Yeah, I remember getting a mentor was a little tough as well. I had to email someone, who then gave me my mentor's contact details, who I then had to arrange a match that we could both do. And there wasn't much follow-up other than a hand-written report. Although I suspect if I did have any awful experiences, there would have been more contact.
Observers are dwindling in number and mentors are even fewer. The Observer is probably busy at another game, one for a Contributory, Supply or Promotion referee. The Mentor is probably an Observer or a referee who has his own game.
The Mentor process is that one is appointed. The Mentee makes the first contact. The two agree a basis for contact, e.g. every game, every other game, etc. Contact is unlikely to be a match observation. There's just not enough bodies.
The Mentor process is that one is appointed. The Mentee makes the first contact. The two agree a basis for contact, e.g. every game, every other game, etc. Contact is unlikely to be a match observation. There's just not enough bodies.
What Brian says. CFAs don't have enough observers to cover all of the 7-6, 6-5, and 5-4 candidates the required number of times, so there is no chance they are going to send one out to watch a referee who isn't on promotion.
A mentor is the answer, but there aren't enough of those either. You don't necessarily need someone to watch you though, sometimes just someone being on the end of a phone is all you need.
A mentor is the answer, but there aren't enough of those either. You don't necessarily need someone to watch you though, sometimes just someone being on the end of a phone is all you need.
And yet down here (Brian's pov)/ up here (Rusty's pov) there are Observers who cannot recall the last time they did an observation- suggesting we're flush with them?
Strange state of affairs, then again mind you, we are the "drive through county" where nobody stops to look at anything!
Strange state of affairs, then again mind you, we are the "drive through county" where nobody stops to look at anything!
Got my 30th of the season on Saturday.
The question there though would be are they available to observe, or are they not observing because they are out refereeing every Saturday and Sunday. Down here we've been extremely successful in weeding out some of the old school assessors who won't change and insisted on doing it their way, and the panel now has a high percentage of level 4s and above. The obvious down side of that is they are out refereeing every Saturday and most midweeks, so getting the coverage is probably harder than it was than when we had observers who had retired from refereeing 30 years ago and had nothing else to do on a Saturday and Sunday other than assess.
As I said in my OP I am not on the promotion trail this season, but reading through some of the latter comments in this thread there seems to be a suggestion that there are a lack of observers, or a lack of availability due to them refereeing. On the back of this, has there been any examples of promotion candidates not gaining promotion because they haven't had the required number of observations, but through no fault of their own?
I'm currently on my 6-5 promotion trail and I've only had 2 of my 3 assessments, having done something around 18-20 matches.
I have a feeling that counties will work down the ranks, deploying assessors to mainly 5-4's and above as a top priority, then moving on to doing mainly 6-5's, then moving on to doing mainly 7-6's. As I was injured during November/December, I suspect that's when 6-5's were being prioritised - and even though I've been squeezing matches into Jan/Feb to get up to my 20, I'm not a priority for observation at the moment. I've got at least 2 (and hopefully 4) more matches scheduled for Feb, so I've still got a good chance of getting assessed for a 3rd time and avoiding having to rely on club marks, so we'll see!
I have a feeling that counties will work down the ranks, deploying assessors to mainly 5-4's and above as a top priority, then moving on to doing mainly 6-5's, then moving on to doing mainly 7-6's. As I was injured during November/December, I suspect that's when 6-5's were being prioritised - and even though I've been squeezing matches into Jan/Feb to get up to my 20, I'm not a priority for observation at the moment. I've got at least 2 (and hopefully 4) more matches scheduled for Feb, so I've still got a good chance of getting assessed for a 3rd time and avoiding having to rely on club marks, so we'll see!
I cannot recall such an example, but it could happen most likely when an observer is appointed but the match is not played (unfit) or the referee is injured.
The move to electronic reporting of the assessments have also removed a number of the "old school" who cannot use the required IT. These are still respect referees and could assist @Twinblade develop, but these would normally be contacted via the local RA. They do offer good advice for new referees, but possible "out of the loop" for promotion candidates.
in my neck of the woods you don't need t tell the clubs that there is an observer present. the big puffy jackets with the clip board is sign enough.
in my first observed game i didn't tell the clubs but they figured it out soon enough and it was probably my worst game of the season
in my first observed game i didn't tell the clubs but they figured it out soon enough and it was probably my worst game of the season
A Freethinker
RefChat Addict
Can I ask why they need to know?
I would be very wary of doing that. At our promotion seminar here in Essex, we were explicitly told not to do that - and I think the implication was that the assessment could be struck off if the observer believes the players knowing had an effect on how they treated you.
A Freethinker
RefChat Addict
But is that not for the FA to inform the club or the assessor themselves? Surely a referee informing teams of I have an assessor today so to speed things up etc is against the rules? Over here you turn up someone's there and they introduce themselves and you get squeaky bxumhole time!
