Northland referee has whistle ready

Like many other New Zealand football fans, Peter O'Leary is pleased that Phoenix owner Terry Serepisos has sorted out his financial woes long enough to keep his team in the A-League this season.
But O'Leary has a better reason than most.
The new head of science at Tikipunga High School gets to watch some of the games from the best position in the house, as he referees many of the Wellington side's home games.
"Personally, I don't have an opinion about Serepisos but it's great for New Zealand to have a team in the A-League. It gives local players an identified route to becoming a professional," he said.
O'Leary is one of New Zealand's top Fifa-ranked referees and was one of 29 selected to attend last year's World Cup finals in South Africa where he saw players such as Argentina's Lionel Messi, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Brazil's Kaka play in the flesh.
"Being able to see guys like that play up close in a live match is better than having the best seat in the stadium. You're in the middle of the game and it's brilliant," O'Leary said.
While there are some knock-backs associated with getting a big call wrong, the benefits far outweigh the negatives, the Wellington-born teacher reckons.
"We get training from sports psychologists to deal with that sort of pressure, and we spend quite a lot of time preparing mentally, along with the fitness side of things and the technical side of the game as well," he said.
His experience in South Africa was the peak of his refereeing career to date but O'Leary would like to go one step further and be selected to referee a match at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
"In South Africa, unfortunately, I was a dedicated fourth official and while it was disappointing not to get a game, there were about 3000 other international referees that would have loved to have been selected to go to the World Cup finals. It was an amazing experience," he said.
O'Leary is once again looking forward to the start of the A-League when it begins in October but for now he is enjoying "getting back in touch with my family" and getting used to his new job in Whangarei.
This has also given him the chance to help Bob Davidson coach the Tikipunga High School girls' 1st XI football team. He loves the game and enjoys being involved with it at any level.
"I was an average player and I warmed the bench more often than not and I felt I wasn't getting enough out of the game, so I had a go at coaching but I wasn't the best at that either.
"I still had the idea that I wanted to be involved at the top level of the game - so a referee suggested trying refereeing. So I had a go at that and got good feedback from the players and the referee inspectors and that was the start," he said.
It isn't easy refereeing at the top level but O'Leary is as keen as ever to continue his international career and put his hand up for selection for the next World Cup, when the long process gets under way later in the year.