‘Show cause, disqualifications, big fines’: Penrith Junior League clamping down on ref abuse

“If you attend one of our venues, it’s not tolerated”: The Penrith Junior League has issued a strong statement against abuse of match officials, with heavy consequences to come for offenders.

The Penrith Junior League has issued a strong statement against referee abuse. Picture: Supplied

Abuse of referees has continued across junior rugby league, prompting one of Australia’s biggest junior nurseries to take a stand.

The Penrith Panthers Junior League issued a powerful statement across social media on Thursday, condemning poor behaviour towards match officials and threatening big sanctions for offenders.

“The Penrith and District Junior Rugby League Board of Management, in conjunction with the Penrith Referees Association, has decided to enforce the following consequences given the increase in referee abuse and code of conduct breaches,” the statement reads.

“The PDJRL by- laws 4.18 will be enforced without explanation from round 6. Furthermore, a punishment from round 7 on top of judiciary outcomes a team will be asked to show just cause why they shouldn’t be removed from the competition and the club to be issued a fine of $1000 with a case by case approach.

“The disqualification of teams was agreed upon in a collective discussion back in 2021 and was mutually agreed unanimously from the executive group.

“This cause of action is being taken due to the escalation in abuse and threats towards referees by players, spectators, and officials in the first 6 rounds of the 2023 junior league competition.”

Penrith junior league general manager Blake South told NewsCorp the situation got to a stage where it was necessary to take a stand.

“It was at a point where the amount of referee abuse and the incidents we’ve had around the topic became too frequent,” South said.

“It’s not something we want in our game or in our district, which is why we released a statement to state what we are going to do moving forward to protect our referees.

“We support them 100 per cent.”

South said he sympathises with match officials in the job they do, recognising that it can sometimes be a thankless task.

“Our referees are apparently short (on numbers) and are stretched across the district,” he said.

“But they’re doing their best and getting the job done with the resources they have.

“It’s a hard task and it’s not easy. It can be easy to make mistakes, but they shouldn’t be criticised, just as players shouldn’t be when they make a mistake.”

South had a stern message for those who will not follow the rules moving forward.

“It’s not tolerated in Penrith,” he said.

“If you attend one of our venues, it’s not tolerated in any circumstance. If they want to open their mouth and abuse someone, the consequences will follow.”

The original post was met with a big reaction from followers, amassing over 190 reactions, 70 comments and 40 shares.

“Everyone needs to remember that it’s Jr (junior) footy and not pro footy. It’s meant to be fun for our kids. Some parents go way to far and live their lives through their kids. It’s just sad that grown adults have to yell abuse, to most of the time younger refs that are still learning,” Kelly Taylor commented.

“Imagine the parents of a referee yelling abuse at your son or daughter because they dropped a ball or missed a tackle..!! Absolutely no place for disrespecting an official doing his/her best in kids sport,” David Collins added.

This comes on the back of the Souths Juniors competition issuing a similar warning on the back of poor spectator behaviour.

In their statement, CEO Luke Curry issued a stern warning to participants who couldn’t follow the rules.

“Verbal abuse of referees, threatening behaviour towards volunteers, relentless questioning of on field decisions by grown men and women towards young teenage match officials who are out doing what they enjoy,” the statement read.

Souths Juniors will not tolerate this behaviour. We don’t want you in our league if you wish to carry on this way.”