Northern Football Federation:
He is known by his peers as being a big stickler for rules, so it comes as no surprise that Long Bay College student Ben Matthews tried his hand at refereeing. He hasn’t looked back.
The 17-year old is a keen footballer and juggling both school and club football commitments meant time wasn’t on his side to take up the whistle earlier.
“I had been wanting to be a qualified referee for a long time but I wouldn’t have been able to juggle refereeing and playing for both club and school so I just never looked into it,” Matthews explained.
“Once I left my club Forrest Hill Milford at the end of 2016 and just focused on school football, it opened up some time to referee.
“My classmates know I hate it when people break rules so I always try to help keep people inside them and this just flowed into being a referee.”
NFF’s Referee Development Officer Chris Casey said thats Ben’s positive learning attitude was great to see and very encourging “Ben displayed a maturity beyond his years and worked very hard to continually improve whenever he took to the field. He was thirsty for knowledge and really took on the coaching points offered.”