It's always been a bone of contention for me - violence on the sports field. Especially when it comes to the abuse, be it physical or verbal of a match officials.
While I can't comment on the recent incident involving former Hawke's Bay Magpie Whetu Barber while it is still before the judiciary, it's definitely nothing new to hear stories of match officials copping a bit of flak. It's almost become part of the scenery on the Saturday sports fields to see a referee being served a volley of abuse from someone.
As a former sports reporter, I regularly came across it, from spectators through to the coach and players having a go at a referee. In one ugly incident it got so bad, it ended in blows. Rightly so, the player involved was banned for life from the sport. Many who hurl the abuse seem to forget, these men and women usually referee for the love of the game and often for little or no pay.
Putting aside the physical abuse for a moment, many see the odd verbal to a referee as just part of the game and a little bit of fun. Some even do it to try to put the ref off his or her game. Sure it can get frustrating when a ref makes a mistake - especially when it influences the outcome of a match - and I'm sure there are times when a ref has perhaps favoured one side from the other. But whether or not that is true, reacting in a way that brings a sport, club, team or individual into disrepute is shameful and not what we should be teaching our future generation.
Whether it is professional, semi-professional, club level or children's sport our match officials deserve to be respected and should be given credit for putting themselves in that position.
