UP-and-coming referee Brendan Farrar knows he has a way to go to earn the players’ respect.
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But the 23-year-old believes it is all part of a learning curve he hopes will lead to a career in Sydney and beyond.
Farrar created headlines across the country last month when he started a first-grade game with only one team on the park.
Singleton were instructed to kick off after Southern Beaches had not heeded Farrar’s calls to take the field.
The Bulls duly crossed for a try as the visitors were running on to the ground.
Farrar admitted he made the wrong decision.
‘‘My problem was that I went in with preconceived ideas, and that is definitely something to learn from,’’ he said.
‘‘Everyone got out their law book and was scurrying through it.
‘‘Afterwards I spoke to [chairman of coaching and grading] Greg O’Donnell, [coach] Keith Hole and my dad about it.
‘‘Unfortunately, I was incorrect. It was an error that was highly publicised.’’
Farrar was dropped to second grade. But rather than be disheartened, he offered to control an extra game.
‘‘I want to referee as many games as I can,’’ he said.
‘‘When I realised I wasn’t going to ref a first-grade game that week and there was a vacancy in third grade, I thought I’d jump at the chance to do two games.’’
Apart from the Bulls-Beaches controversy, Farrar sent three Lake Macquarie players off in one game, two for dissent, and allowed Maitland centre Jono O’Toole to retake a match-winning conversion against Wanderers last round. On both occasions, he was in the right.
The whistleblower, who is studying to become an architect, said he did not seek the attention.
‘‘I want to be in the background and not be noticed,’’ Farrar said. ‘‘Obviously there are going to be people who don’t agree with my decisions.
‘‘I had a player apologise to me last weekend for what the crowd was yelling out.
‘‘I said, ‘To be honest, I don’t hear any of it.’
‘‘To be a referee you have to block it out. If you listen to it and take it all to heart, you are not going to keep refereeing.
‘‘You have to ignore most of it, laugh at the funny ones and cop it on the chin.’’
Farrar, who began refereeing when he was 14, is in his second year in Newcastle first grade and hopes to graduate to the Sydney ranks in the next two years.
He was appointed to the Country A panel this season and controlled the colts final between Illawarra and Central West in Lismore.
‘‘I worked hard leading up to Country but I expect to finish the championship ranked second,’’ Farrar said.
Despite his rise in the Country ranks, Farrar is a relative newcomer in Newcastle first grade.
‘‘With experience you get respect from players,’’ he said.
‘‘At the moment I don’t have the players’ respect.
‘‘I think once they get to see me week in, week out they will come to respect me as I respect them. They have earned their spot just like I have earned mine.’’