Sideline Behaviour

There is nothing more important than that sideline support for players. Encouraging them to play hard and try is great.

Recently it has been nationally highlighted that competitive sport is not good for kids of a young age. At Northcote, we also believe that and one of the reasons we believe this is because of the parents. So have a read below about our approach and attitude.

First off, consider the age of the kids. Their performance and victories will have no influence on whether they go on to be a professional sports player. Consider that there is no winners trophy at the end of the season. There is no leaderboard and no scores are recorded. There is no reason to get angry if a game does not go your way.

Kids do not enjoy having loud competitive parents yelling at the team to "Do this." "Do that." Especially frustrating for a coach who may be telling the kids to do one thing and then have parents shouting for them to do something else. There are many things to learn and often a coach is just focusing on two of those before they move onto the other 12.

When a kid makes a mistake, misses a tackle drops the ball. They actually know this and don't need the sideline to point it out in a loud voice.

As a supporter, cheer, clap, encourage your kid and the team. When mistakes are made, support them for trying and encourage them to try again. When the referee gets it horribly wrong, empathise with your fellow supporters and with the kids but do not shout instructions or advice to the referee.

Don't forget - Every referee is a volunteer, a learner. They are always wanting to do a good job and worry about getting it wrong. Yet they are stepping up to do a job that you are not.