Violent, aggressive and verbally abusive sideline behaviour in Waikato’s youth rugby has triggered a call to action from the Waikato Rugby Union.
By Jordan Smith, Local Democracy Reporter
A statement released by the union’s chief executive Amy Marfell said the field "should not be a place where young people fear the behaviour of grown adults".
As of Tuesday afternoon, the post had just under 200,000 views and 272 shares across Facebook and Instagram along with 150 shares on Facebook alone.
And, as another sporting leader pointed out, "nobody's ever made the All Blacks at eight years old".
Marfell said all instances of abuse were reported back to the union. She said the problem isn’t a recent one but the timing of a new season created a good time to send a clear message.
"The longer that you stay silent on these kinds of issues, the more people think that you accept them right?," she said.
"I thought it was time to be, I guess, quite pointed with what we expect to see on the sidelines and deliver a clear reminder for those adults that this is the behaviour we expect."
The goal of retraining what acceptable behaviour on the sidelines for the new season looked like was a major focus, Marfell said, as well as ensuring those actions weren't normalised, especially around young people.
"While it's never acceptable to be violent or to show aggression or intimidate or hurl verbal abuse, I find it even less acceptable when we're talking about youth.
"I've got two major fears when it comes to this kind of behaviour around youth. One is that kids will give up... and the other one is that kids learn that this stuff is acceptable."
The same sentiment is shared by council officials.
"There just isn't room for that sort of violence or abuse,” Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech said.
"It doesn't set a good example for the kids either who then grow up normalising that sort of behaviour from their parents or whānau."
'Oh look, that's just sport'... it really isn't
There was a simple message from Sport Waikato’s sport development manager Amigene Metcalfe.
“Nobody's ever made the All Blacks at eight years old... there's plenty of time for them to be elite and to be under scrutiny.”
She felt the leading reasons for the behaviour were multi-layered.
“We've allowed a few peple to yell and sometimes abuse and misbehave... we kind of ignore it and not that we want to ignore it but it's a very hard thing to address. We've gone 'oh look that's just sport' and it really isn't.
It’s also about how parents defined success. “You can be hugely proud as a parent if your kid's come off the field and they've tried their hardest... they might have lost the game but there's still heaps to celebrate there.”
She added the goal of youth sport was to make it "a little bit like Disneyland" in terms of making it an exciting experience.
“At the moment, I think we probably have quite a few people walking from the sidelines of the sport at the weekend feeling quite frustrated and maybe a bit disappointed with what they're experiencing.”
As a result of sideline abuse, dwindling volunteer numbers could have a devastating flow-on effect, as coaches and referees alike started to question whether it was worth their time.
“Sport pretty quickly falls apart if we don’t have people volunteering to help,” Marfell said.
“If you've got somebody who's not got a lot of time and isn't the most confident referee, umpire or coach, they go along and judged quite openly, why would you put your hand up?,” Metcalfe added.
Her advice was, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
SHARE ME