Sydney Referee Wants High Wire Screens To Protect Whistle Men From Crowd
The most trying match I have ever refereed was one of the New South Wales-England series, in which Jonathan Parkin took part, writes W. Neijl, prominent League referee, in the Sydney “Sun" Illegalities were frequent, Parkin, in particular, was troublesome. I was discovering nim a great deal in doing tilings contrary to the rules, and he walked up to me and inquired when he was going to get a crack of the whip, but I replied that, captain or no captain, I would send him off if it was necessary. I think my attitude then had much to do with the Englishmen not choosing me to take charge of a test match —the ambition of my life.
I am convinced that it is time referees were given greater police protection here, and barriers would be convenient at all grounds to enable referees to have a clear passage, free from the crowd, to their dressing rooms. High wire screens should also be erected to prevent dangerous missiles being hurled at the whistle men as they are travelling to and from the stands. Once the referees were on or off the ground it would no longer be necessary to keep up the barriers. These could be taken down to permit spectators tr> move about wherever they desired. At present there is nothing to stop someone dropping a bottle or large stone from the main stands on to a referee’s head, and I predict that some day a referee will in this manner be seriously injured. It would be an added precaution to place a taxi-cab or a car at a referee’s
'disposal. The worst is on no account over when a referee reaches his dress-ingr-room. You can’t beat the Sydney barracker for innocent enthusiasm, but he has got to be beaten soon for harmful recklessness. Not only the referee is the object of his merciless rage. He is striking at a larger object than that, although he is not aware of it—the man’s game of Rugby League football itself.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19280907.2.100.2
Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 453, 7 September 1928, Page 10
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349Sydney Referee Wants High Wire Screens To Protect Whistle Men From Crowd Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 453, 7 September 1928, Page 10
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