Patrick Galloway wins national refereeing award

Photos (Top to Bottom): Patrick Galloway (second from left) prior to him refereeing the North versus South game this year at Aurora Stadium in Launceston; Patrick Galloway (second from left) as the fourth official at a women's final in Hobart [PlessPix]

Tasmania’s Patrick Galloway won Football Federation Australia’s Referee-of-the-Year Award at an FFA awards night in Sydney last Thursday.

Below is the interview I conducted with Patrick upon his return to Hobart.

Walter Pless: How old are you, Patrick?

Patrick Galloway: Nineteen years old. I’ll be twenty in April next year.

WP: How long have you been a referee?

PG: I’ve been a referee since 2005 – so 6 years now. It’s been great fun.

WP: What made you become a referee?

PG: Originally, I became a referee to earn some money, and so that I had something to do on weekends apart from playing football!

I originally started refereeing my brother’s small-sided games a few years before I started and I enjoyed it, so I thought, ‘why not give it a go?’ Dad did the course with me and he’s supported me the whole way through. He and mum have been great.

WP: Have you played the game?

PG: I have. I played from under-6s with Howrah until under-16s with Clarence – so, 11 years of playing. I was never much of a player. I kept for a while, and that was fun at times, but I enjoyed playing on the field more, by far.

WP: What is your aim in refereeing?

PG: My aim in refereeing is to go as far as possible – as general as that sounds! I’d love to do a National Youth League game one day soon, especially if they come back down here again. It was fantastic being involved in the 2008 games down here [as a fourth official and an assistant referee].

I guess I’d love to referee in the A-League one day – but that’s a long way off, and at the moment is impossible to achieve without going to the mainland, which won’t happen for at least another 4 or 5 years while I finish my medical degree.

I’d love to see a pathway for the younger referees to move on up to higher levels, too. The referees between 17 and 23 or so are the future for us here, so they need to be promoted and nurtured, as well as exposed to the senior levels of the game down here. An NYL team, with a view to an A-League team one day in Tasmania, would be an amazing start.

WP: Which is the most important game you've refereed?

PG: I guess there’s a couple. The Summer Cup game between Clarence United and Knights this year was a big one and good fun. It decided which team made the final. I really enjoyed refereeing at Aurora this year in the U-20 statewide game and working with some boys from the north as my assistants.

Bringing it back a while, my first ever senior game [between South and Kingborough in 2008] as a just-turned-seventeen-year-old was important to me. I reckon I must have been close to the youngest senior referee. I proved to myself I could referee the big boys.

WP: How do you feel about winning this FFA referee-of-the-year award? What will it lead to?

PG: It was incredibly flattering. To even be nominated as a contestant for the national award was a massive shock, considering that there are referees who are definitely more worthy of a nomination in Tasmania. As you know, Kim went last year, and he’s the benchmark for referees in Tasmania. He’s been the best for a long time, and he deserves to be recognised as such. But, aside from him, we have younger referees like Ivan, who’s well entrenched at Premier level, and then Brenton, who’s got a couple of years of experience on me, so it was a shock and extremely flattering to get nominated in front of these guys who deserved it just as much, if not more.

There are also a lot of people who make big contributions to the game by their refereeing each week. One person that stands out for me is Sean Collins. Sean has copped so much crap this year, and yet he still goes out and referees each week! I don’t think many people realise that people like Sean really only have the best interests of our game at heart. So, I was very flattered to receive the Tasmanian award in front of people like these.

Anyway, I digress. To win the award nationally was amazing and an even bigger surprise. It was a great feeling to be presented with this award in front of a room full of footballers, volunteers, coaches, you name it – the ‘football family’, as it was called. There was a great sense of camaraderie on Thursday night.

The award itself was more of a motivational award to say: ‘We acknowledge that you’ve been working hard as a referee. Keep it up!’ By no means was it about me being the best referee in Australia. I’m a very long way off. It considered all-around factors such as participation in refereeing outside of game day, working with younger referees, and things like that. It was very flattering as there are a great number of more deserving winners around the country.

The award was also very positive for me, too. It was great to have people recognise me as making a contribution, and it makes me feel that what I do as a referee is worth it. It’ll make the rubbish that referees cop just that much sweeter!

But, it was just very pleasing to be recognised for the work I do, I suppose. The award will be a great motivation for me to work hard at my refereeing and fitness for next year and beyond, hopefully moving on to a higher level.

WP: What are the downsides to refereeing?

PG: The coaches. The players are mostly great to referee. As I get older, I find it a lot easier to communicate with the guys out there. There are some genuinely nice people on the football field who I enjoy refereeing, and there is nothing better than walking off at the end of the game knowing that you’ve had a good game and the players feel you haven’t had a negative impact on the game – ‘seen and not heard’, as the saying goes.

I guess what I’d say is that coaches need to consider the human element – referees are only human. I can confidently say that there is not a referee in Tasmania that I’ve worked with that would be anything other than fair, and no matter what has gone on in the past, every referee is fair, every week. No referees go out there to ‘gain revenge’ or ‘win’.

So to cop abuse from these coaches, blaming you for their failures, is always really disappointing, especially when they don’t consider what we as referees are trying to do, be fair and objective. I know these guys are mostly volunteers, and I have a lot of respect for that.

But, it’s the younger referees, younger than me, that have potential to go on and achieve in their refereeing career, who are most at risk here – and a lot of coaches [parents too] don’t understand the damage they can do to a referee’s confidence by having a go at them.

That said, I have had the pleasure of dealing with some lovely coaches. Some of them might not agree with every decision I make, but the coaches that have the guts to say ‘thanks, ref’, shake your hand, and appreciate what you’re doing at the end of a game make the job worth doing – coaches like Jed and Ken at South, Browny at Clarence, George at Eagles, the Taroona guys. They are all great to deal with. There are also a lot of junior level coaches out there who are a pleasure to deal with.

WP: What are the best points about refereeing?

PG: The best parts, without a doubt, are my fellow referees. I enjoy working with every one of them. Blokes like Alastair Cooke, Ivan, Brenton, Adrian Lockley, Craig Phillips, Jason Priest, Kim and everyone else who I haven’t mentioned, they all make the job fun. It’s great having people you can chat to and enjoy your time refereeing with.

The way that people look out for you in refereeing has improved out of sight, too, over my time as a referee. There have been times when I just needed to chat and talk about a game, and I can think of plenty of times where people like Rick McAllister were there to offer some friendly advice when it was needed. I really appreciated Rick’s kind words, and all of the people who have assisted me.

Having Robert Freke at FFT is also fantastic. Robert is a true gentleman and works so hard for the referees in Tasmania. He’s got an 8-day-a-week job in winter. He’s always there to lend an ear for a chat, as well as to provide advice and further our development as referees. Having him as our Referee Development Officer has been a huge step for refereeing in the state. It means FFT is taking steps to ensure referees are protected.

Receiving recognition and encouragement from players, coaches and peers is another bonus. It’s a great boost to your confidence when a senior coach or player tells a referee that he’s improving and had a good game today.

But, back when I started, too, the smallest praise made the biggest difference. I once received a trophy from the Div 2 Clarence Spirit team, in my first year of refereeing. As a low-on-confidence, fourteen-year-old boy, refereeing men in Division 2, this was a great encouragement and it was an extremely nice gesture from a great bunch of people. I really appreciated their thoughts.

WP: Do you have any advice to players?

PG: Get involved! Go and do a course – believe me, even if you don’t go on to referee you gain a lot of knowledge on the game that helps your playing brain.

Players and coaches that stand there and criticise you often have no idea what it’s like making split-second decisions for 90 minutes – so do give it a go. It’d be great to see some more players taking it up. The playing experience is a great help when you’re learning to be a referee.