All White veteran Ivan Vicelich doesn't flinch when it starts to rain on the pitch where he is teaching football skills to a group of 7- and 8-year-old children.

Fiery college football coach Kevin Fallon was on the sideline last week watching the Eastern Suburbs team he coaches, when a chippy opposition supporter on the veranda at Stanmore Bay offered him some unhelpful advice.

A church minister has been cleared of assaulting an off-duty police officer who was refereeing his son's under-10 rugby game in a disagreement over a try.

In track pants and a warm jacket, Robyn Polley looks just like any other parent on the sidelines at busy kids' winter sports events.

Parents have given a mixed reaction to being urged by a football club to give their kids the silent treatment from the sidelines.

A tough new scheme of "three strikes" will be introduced at junior sports matches to try to stamp out abuse and violence on the sidelines.

Rugby league clubs in some of New Zealand's most deprived neighbourhoods are showing how they can work with their communities to get the drugs, dogs and gangs off the sidelines.

New Zealand rugby referee Bryce Lawrence says he would still be blowing the whistle at test level if it hadn't been for the abusive backlash after his handling of a World Cup quarter-final.

Junior sport is a vitally important part of the sport and recreation pathway. It's a rite of passage for Kiwi kids, and it's where they develop what will become, for many, a lifelong love of sport.

Star rugby league winger Manu Vatuvei knows as much as any New Zealand sportsman how crowds can dish up the abuse.

Tina Karreman knew it was time to give up coaching and refereeing soccer games when her sons, then 14 and 17, told her how much it upset them to see her abused.

My Parents are Ugly? Watch the cartoon with all the family. Come on Mum and Dad – sort out your sideline behaviour! While most parents are great sideline supporters, some aren’t. My Parents are Ugly is a book from New Zealand Rugby as part of their Applaud initiative, based on a boy’s view of his parents at a game of rugby.

Spectators can make or break a sports game.

Herald on Sunday photographers caught the sideline action at the weekend. If you see remarkable behaviour on the sidelines this winter - good or bad - please get in touch at news@hos.co.nz

Click here to pledge your support to uphold the Herald on Sunday Sideline Code on Facebook.

Police were called in after the 17-year-old referee was attacked following the secondary schools final game between Auckland Grammar School and De La Salle College's 2B grade teams on Saturday.