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Board Directive

Following the incident on Friday the 28th of April 2023, The Board convened to review our regulations to increase referee safety, wellbeing and increase participation & spectator satisfaction.

The Board has made the changes detailed below which will be implemented commencing Friday 5th May 2023 at 5pm.

The measures are strong, and the Board will continue to review other changes and communicate them when finalised.

Protecting Referees on Game Day

Before the game, at half time and at full-time, some Registered Team Officials (“RTOs” that is, Coaches and Managers) consider it their right to question or worse, argue or abuse referees about their decisions during a game.

Although many Coaches and Managers are respectful, and the request is genuine, this interaction allows for potential abuse / arguing.  We have had reports from as recently as last weekend of such unacceptable interactions.

1. Approaching a Match Official  

• No RTO or Spectator is to approach a Centre Referee, Assistant Referee, Referees Coach or Referee Assessor to question any decisions made by the Referees, be it before, during or after the game.
• Should an RTO breach the above, they will be issued a red card, and will result in the game being abandoned. The game will be awarded to the non-offending team as a forfeit 3-0 victory or at the score of the game at the time if the non-offending team is up by more than a margin of 3 goals. Further to the loss via forfeit, the offending team will have a further 3 points deducted from their competition points for the season.
• Should an RTO have a question stemming from a game, they are to follow the correct procedure of putting their feedback or questions in writing to the BDAFA office via their Club Secretary.
• Players, including captains, are also not permitted to question a referee, this is to be administered as per the Laws of the game.

2. Dissent or Use of Offensive and/or Insulting and/or Abusive Language “OIAL” by RTO

Currently, Dissent by an RTO is handled by them being issued with a yellow card and the game continues.

From Friday 5th May 5pm, should an RTO be issued with two yellow cards for yellow card offences including dissent, they will be issued with a Red and the game will be abandoned.

From the same date, if an RTO uses Offensive and/or Insulting and/or Abusive Language against a referee, assistant referee, 4th official, or referee mentor or referee assessor, they will be issued with a Red Card and the game will be abandoned.

The game will be awarded to the non-offending team as a forfeit 3-0 victory or at the score of the game at the time if the non-offending team is up by more than a margin of 3 goals. Further to the loss via forfeit, the offending team will have a further 3 points deducted from their competition points for the season.

Offence Table  

Body Camera’s

BDAFA will be trialing body cameras on MPL games from the 5th of May 2023 onwards. The Body Cameras will be worn by the Referees.

Once the trial is running and we have evaluated its effectiveness, we will look to roll out Body Cameras in other competitions.

The cameras will remain the property of the Association and the data on them.

Guard of Honour

In an effort to display Bankstown Footballs unity and respect for Match Officials, The Board issue the following Directive for games being held on the 5th, 6th & 7th of May 2023.

All games that have a Match Official present on the 5th, 6th & 7th of May 2023, teams are asked to form a Guard of Honour at the commencement and conclusion of each game. Each club should line up at halfway on the sideline to allow the referees to enter the pitch between both teams lined up.

We want to actively demonstrate to the BDR, that our participants care and support them, and anti-social behaviour is not welcome in our game or Bankstown.

Kind Regards

The BDAFA Board.

Register to be a Referee!

The Cost to register with BDR Referees in 2023 will be $0 – FREE !

If you are a new Referee in the Bankstown District you will be provided with a Referee kit free of Charge.

To register as a referee: https://registration.dribl.com/club/1585

2023 Referees Incentives:

For the 2023 Season, BDAFA have developed an incentives program to encourage people to take up refereeing.

All Referees in 2023

Training:

• If you attend 5 Referee training sessions: You will receive a bonus of $100 at the end of the Season

Games Refereed:

• There will be a target system in place for the number of games you referee throughout the year! Once the season is finished, if you reach one of the below game targets you will receive one of the following bonuses.

End of the year Raffle:

• There will be a raffle at the end of the year for a referee’s chance to win $1000!!!
• To enter the raffle, you must referee a minimum of 40 games to receive a ticket.
  • A referee will receive an extra ticket for each target they reach e.g., 50+ and 60+ games refereed.

Summer Football Wet Weather Update

Unfortunately, due to the large amount of rain Bankstown experienced, Kinch remains closed.

We have been able to secure Jensen Park Synthetic on Monday and Wednesdays evenings for the next two weeks to facilitate our competitions.

The office has been working through competition changes. Please find below a brief update on each Competition Night.

Tuesday Night – Grade 6/7 & 8/9 Boys and Girls: There are 2 spare weeks in this draw. Should Kinch be closed we will extend this competition into its spare weeks based at Kinch Reserve.

Wednesday Night – Grade 10/11 Mixed, Grade 12, 13, 14:  Round 1 will be played Wednesday night 19/10/2022 at Jensen Park, Games are already published on Dribl. This competition will also play on Wednesday 26/10/2022, Dribl will be updated shortly for this date.

All other washed out games for this competition will be rescheduled as double headers and updated on Dribl.

Thursday Night – Grade 10/11 Girls, Grade 15/16 & All Age Men: This competition has been moved to a Monday for the next Two weeks. We are seeking feedback from team leaders, as we are aware this was not the original scheduled day. Once teams have responded to the office, the Dribl draw will be updated.

Team Leaders have been emailed with all changes.

BDAFA will work hard to ensure games are rescheduled and competitions are completed.

We would like to thank all our members for their patience and understanding.

Yours in Sport

Staffing

As we continue to look at improving our services to our clubs and their members,  last week we welcomed a new staff member, Tyron Geany into the office.

Tyron joins us to provide additional support across multiple parts of BDAFA, Tyron has a qualified AFC C-License coach and has been involved in Football as a player and coach in Bankstown his entire football career.

Tyron is currently working on developing session plans for clubs to use across all age groups and we hope to have them uploaded to a share drive shortly alongside a plan to help deliver these session plans to coaches across all clubs.
Ty will also being assisting across many of operational and competitions activities and will also be shortly helping to launch Summer football for this season.

Competition

Weather impact

The last 2 weeks of wet weather has further impacted out competitions

Where it currently Stands

• There are no wash out rounds remaining.
• We will progress forward with the following subject to further rain. If we have any further wash outs we will need to re-evaluate and possibly wash out any further rain effected rounds.

Grade 12-21 Saturday Competition – Any further washouts will be rescheduled to a double header (Sunday games)

Ladies Football – Sunday Competition – Any further wash outs will be reschedule to night games.

All Age Men & O35’s  – Any further washouts will be rescheduled to a midweek night game OR a double header (Sunday games).

Men’s Premier League – Any further washouts will be rescheduled to a double header (Sunday games).

Over 45’s – We are reviewing this competition.

Division 1 Ladies| BDAFA & CDSFA Joint Competition

Last month a survey was completed by the participants of both BDAFA and CDSFA ladies 1/2 competitions. There was a great response to this email which was overwhelming in favour of a joint Division 1 competition between BDAFA and CDSFA.

BDAFA will now meet with CDSFA to work through the logistics of a joint competition for the 2023 season. Once this has been determined we will look to meet with the participants of the BDAFA Division 1 ladies teams and seek feedback before the competition is finalised.

We wish to thank all those who took the time to complete the survey. We appreciate your feedback and are excited for the future of ladies football.

Grade 6/7 Grade 7 Mixed

This competition has Two (2) games scheduled for each team at the same park this Saturday. This was to make up for a washout round.

It goes without saying that we have experience an unprecedented weather event for the 2022 season, this is off the back of two COVID interrupted seasons.

BDAFA, our Club Volunteers have been working hard week in week out to get our games played. To give some context this weekend we have only 12 full fields available and 5 fields that we can use for Small Sided Football to work with.

BDAFA had fortunately scheduled numerous wet weather allowances in the draw, despite the numerous washouts we have been able to reschedule with 95% of our washouts already, with the remainder to also be scheduled in the near future. This means at this point in time we have not effectively lost any games from this season.

We have now reached the point were we have utilised most of our washout rounds allocated for most competitions some still have one (1) washout round remaining.

Moving forward BDAFA will look to schedule the draw and run competitions as follows:

Small Sided Football

• BDAFA are looking to schedule double games later in the season when more fields come online.  Much like we ran Summer football, each team will play two games on game day. Should the wet weather continue, we will look to schedule another mini Gala Day for each grade on a Sunday to give them extra games
• Grade 10/11 will move to playing across the field to allow for more games in this competition to be played.
• Fields that are not playable as a full field, maybe utilised for SSG if possible.  So venues may just play Small Sided Games only.

Competitive

• Moving forward in the short term any washed out games will be re-scheduled to mid-week OR on a Sunday.  Should the weather continue we will revisit the structure.
• We will look for to shift game time in the All Age Men’s space to 12,2,& 4pm. This give an additional time slot across our fields.

We will continue to keep everyone updated as we progress through the season, we thank you for your patience

BDAFA have reviewed the impending weather and have decided to delay the start of the 2022 Winter Season for all Competitions excluding Men’s Premier League.

Due to this delay, we have extend the season and the Grand Finals will now be held on the  17^th & 18^th September 2022.

Men’s Premier League will continue their rounds as per the Draw with the exception of the Season extension.

All other Competitions will now commence on the 23^rd and 24^th April 2022 and finish on the 17^th & 18^th September 2022.

The updated Draw has been published. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting on the parks.

We are still accepting new teams, please email Glen at glen@bdafa.com.au with any new team entries promptly.

There is still time to register and play Football in Bankstown !

The following clubs are looking for players to fill teams.

Don’t miss out, Register Now

Looking for a club? – go to https://bdafa.com.au/clubs/

Registrations for the 2023 Winter season open soon.

It’s that time of the year to dust off your boots and return to the field.

So grab your friends and register for your local club today!

Find a club in Bankstown –  https://bdafa.com.au/clubs/

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