Additional Information for Referees

Referee Guidelines for VACT Competitions 
Some basic guidelines for new referees in Volleyball ACT competitons are set out below: 
1. Please arrive prior to the warm up time of your first scheduled game and check in with the court supervisor. At some venues you may need to collect scoresheets and check your court (antenna, post pads etc) if you are on the first game of the night. 
2. The scoresheet is to be filled out with who is playing, including numbers, prior or during warm up. For divisions that don't require numbers please still ask the captain/coach to cross out anyone not playing and add anyone not already listed. We require first and last names to be completed for insurance purposes. 
3. Run the warm up: Generally for Spring season games the warm up is 10 minutes. A couple of examples of the warm up are below: 

For Divisions 3-5 you can use either of the above options or a modified version that is suitable. Player safety is the priority. If teams cannot control the ball and hit most balls down the line or cannot adequately collect the balls so they are not rolling around near the net, they will need to warm up on their side without using the net. If you are unsure the Court Supervisor will guide you. 
4. Timeouts are 30 seconds from when you blow the whistle and signal the time out. You won't always have a second referee, and sometimes when you do they've just played and don't have a watch. In a lot of cases for open league you will need to time this yourself. Blow the whistle at 30 seconds, count to 10, blow the whistle again. If you need to a 3rd time, they are delaying the game. Call the captain over and remind them that timeouts are only 30 seconds. If they continue to take too long you can start your sanction scale. 
5. The time between sets in Open League is meant to be 1 minute. Games need to restart in the absolute worst case, before 2 minutes. If teams are taking longer than that, they need to be warned to speed up.  The only time this is different is if the game is untimed (finals) where we will ask them to come back on after 2 minutes, but the maximum allowed it 3 minutes. 
6. In the last 5 minutes of a timed match, no timeouts are allowed. Teams are allowed to continue with a regular substitution (i.e. players that always substitute when they reach position 1 & 4 are allowed the continue doing so) as long as you do not think they are delaying the game.  If you believe it is a delay, the substitution should be rejected.  When a set finishes with 5 minutes or less to go, both teams may agree not to play the next set, however if 1 teams wants to continue and the other does not, they ARE to start a 3rd set. Generally when there is less than 2 minutes left they will need to go straight on, or you can call the end of the match.  If they want to play, the points count, and they should be allowed to play. 
7. After the match the result needs to be written clearly in the result box, and you need to write your name and sign. Ask both captains to sign the scoresheet to confirm the result (for Div 1 & 2 the capitain must also sign the team list. The duty team should fill in the result for you, but you still need to check it, write your name and sign).
8. If you are on the last match of the night, please collect the match ball, any warm up balls on your court and return them along with your scoresheet/s and scoreboard to the Court Supervisor.

Unusual situations
A brief guideline of what to do if you are having difficulties or something strange happens; 

Injury; when an injury occurs, in most instances you can encourage the coach or captain to call a timeout so they can assess the injury and decide whether the player can continue. While the timeout is taking place, please either make a note on the scoresheet, or ask your duty team to note the injury (if you need more room turn the page over).  The injury note should include: a way to identify which player was injured, when the injury happened (time or at least set & score) and a brief description of incident. For example: Team A #1 John Smith landed awkwardly whilst blocking. Injury to left leg (if you are not sure of what the injury was please describe the area. Don't guess). 
In cases where the injury is serious or you are unsure whether the player can get off the court unaided. Please clear the other players from the court and get the Court Supervisor.  If you are uncomfortable leaving the injured player (particularly if they don't have a coach or parent present) you can send someone else to get the Court Supervisor. In these instances the delay to the match is usually longer than 2 minutes, in the injury note on the scoresheet please include the time the game resumed and/or the total time of the delay. 

Unsafe Conditions: If there is anything unsafe on your court please advise the court supervisor. This could be damage to the court, broken equipment or anything that may put the players at risk. Quite often the issue can be resolved, when it can't the court supervisor will decide whether the risk is acceptable or not, usually in consultation with the coaches. 
Some examples we've seen in the last 15 years: 
A ball was hit into the light and the cover shattered leaving small pieces of broken plastic on the court. That game was delayed to allow clean up.
There was damage to the floor near the court but not on the court. Teams were warned before the start of each game of the hazard until it was repaired. 
An instance of torrential rain and flooding outside the venue caused water ingress inside and games were cancelled once the water could not be reasonably contained.  
An unusual combination of minus zero degrees outside, humitity inside the venue and incorrect cleaning products resulted in extemely slippery floors and games being cancelled.  
From time to time unusual things do happen but it isn't common. Use the Court Supervisor as a guide, make a note on the scoresheet, but also be aware that if both teams agree to defer the game, have it noted  and signed on the scoresheet and allow them to reschedule the game.  

Player Behaviour Issues: Some situations relating to poor player behaviour can be difficult to deal with, even for experienced referees.  Understanding the sanction scale often assists in these situations. In addition to that remember:
 - You can call the captain over and remind them of what is appropriate at any stage regardless of if you have cards or not. Sometimes teams aren't educated around what is and isn't allowed and being prompted is enough to reign the behaviour in.  
 - If the poor behaviour continues you can give a player or a coach a yellow card by calling the capitain over. A yellow card is a formal warning, not a penalty and can assist with drawing the line as to what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. A yellow card should be recorded on the scoresheet. It also allows the office a starting point to check in about what happened. 
 - If at any time you feel intimidated by a player, coach or spectator's behaviour you need to let the Court Supervisor know. if you can wait for the next break in play, then get the court supervisor they will assist you. If you can't wait and you trust someone nearby you can ask them to get the court supervisor for you.  If waiting for a break or asking someone for help isn't appropriate, as calmly as possible clear the court (similar to a time-out), get off the referee stand and get the court supervisor. 
 - If the misconduct is minor and you're comfortable continuing the match, when the match is over you can make a note on the back of the scoresheet. Be as specific as possible.  It may be possible to give you a break from refereeing that team for a few weeks. Often a team that has poor behaviour with one referee has poor behaviour with others. If we can identify the repeated behaviour issues and have specific examples that will help the office address the issues with the team.