Guide for Junior Competition Referees

Thank you for refereeing in our Junior Competition. 💙❤️

Draw 📅

In case you also play, the draw is available via the Touch Football Australia website. Field numbers can be found on our location page.

#1 rule for referees: Don’t forget your whistle!
Wear your yellow Newcastle City Touch ref shirt if you have one. If you don’t have one yet, please wear a yellow or white shirt whilst refereeing to avoid clashing with blue and red singlets.
Bring your water bottle and keep hydrated during games, particularly on the hotter days.

No scoring for 7s and 9s, scoring for 11s and older only.
Recording tries scored is the responsibility of referees. Please keep tally anywhere on the sheet but we need the final scores written clearly as numbers in the Final Score boxes.
Remember, the team wearing BLUE is on the left of the sheet, the team wearing RED is on the right
❌ Last year we asked parents to score but this wasn’t done consistently. This year we are asking you to do the scoring.

Games are limited to 25 minutes so once you have lined up a scorer (if required), please get the teams into the playing middle so you can commence as soon as the siren sounds.
Get captains to do paper, scissors, rock to work out who has first tap.
If you have a ref buddy, split up the job so one of you is finding a scorer and other is getting teams onto the field.
Know where you’re going for each time slot. If you need to know where each field is, refer to our field maps.

A reminder about the modified rules for 7s and 9s. Most important is errors in possession count as a touch rather than a change in possession. See modified rules.
Also be aware of parent coaches:
- For the initial three weeks of 7s, coaches are allowed to coach on the field, at least 5 metres behind the team. After these initial games, we ask that coaches allow the players to play the games themselves and may only come onto the field if requested by the referee.
- For 9s, coaches are only allowed on the field for the initial three weeks at the discretion of the referee. If a team is relatively experienced, we ask that parents remain on the sideline and watch.
For these age groups, two refs can operate as “buddies” with each ref to do one side only. One ref will be with the defending side, marking the 7m. The other ref will be with the attacking side, telling them what to do (e.g. “go back to where you were touched, roll the ball”). We want you to control the games so the parents can eventually move back to the sideline to watch.

If we have two refs on a game, we want you both to be helping to control the game at all times.
You are both being paid so let’s make sure that the experience for games with two refs is better than those with a single ref.
If you are on the sideline, you are helping to keep players onside and rotating back into the middle when the other ref needs a break. For 7s/9s, instead use the “buddy” system described earlier.