Young Female Referees Show Great Promise

Early in 2020 a young female named Abi Muller came down from Townsville to the big smoke in Canberra as she was studying at the Australian National University.  Seeing his daughter was in good company, Abi’s father Marcus Muller travelled back to Townsville. Abi refereed and played in the local competition here in the ACT prior to and after the COVID-19 restrictions. Following relaxation of guidelines, TFACT commenced the late Winter early Spring competition in which Abi refereed and played in.

In early October the Spring / Summer competition commenced as did the MO / WO Super League and Premier League, plus numerous School’s competitions.  Abi continued to referee to a very high standard in all of these competitions and was assessed by the referee coaches within TFACT during the Super League and Premier League games as being ready for an upgrade to a Level 4 at the QLD State Cup.

During the period of QLD State Cup, TFACT ran the Super League and Premier League finals series and Abi’s presence was sorely missed.

The TFACT Referee Panel and office were excited to see that Abi had been awarded her L4 Referee badge at the QLD State Cup in 2020. Adding to her upgrade, Abi was awarded the Paul Baker Best Upcoming Referee Award at the 2020 Super League Presentation.

On behalf of the TFACT Referee Panel and the TFACT Office please accept our congratulations on these two achievements.

PS; she is always welcomed back to beautiful Canberra and she can bring Dad along also.

Another referee to mention for her hard work and continuing improvement in officiating is a young girl by the name of Tara Howarth. Since the return of Touch in 2020, Tara has refereed nearly everything you can think of, school Days, junior competitions and senior competitions.  Tara is a Level One referee and is very confident in her ability.

Tara has shown on multiple occasions that she is not afraid to referee at a higher level and is showing as every week goes on that she can handle most situations. Teams have loved having her referee and have even asked if they can have her referee them every week.

During the last week of games prior to the Christmas break, Tara refereed 21 games as singles, showing her hard work and willingness to learn and improve.

Congratulations to both Tara and Abi for their efforts and we hope to see them keep refereeing!