Brigham Young University Cougars vs Arizona on the Gridiron Australia Development Tour, September 2007

Welcome to the website of the Australian Gridiron Officials Association (AGOA)!

The AGOA is comprised of the members of all of the Officials Associations in Australia.

Our members are drawn from active leagues in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and the ACT.  If you’re near a major metropolitan area in one of these states and are interested in becoming an official, please visit our contacts page.

This website will also provide a definitive source for reference materials  for experienced officials.  Everything from mechanics manuals to scorecards will be available (if not already).

We’re also interested in building networks with other gridiron officials around the world.  After all, officials everywhere face the same challenges!

Romney Stadium, Home of Utah State University Football

From 26 August to 26 September, 2007 a group of 30 players with some coaches and others included visited Provo in Utah and Los Angeles in California for some serious football training. 

A great time was had by all and the official who participated wishes to thank Gridiron Australia and especially the outgoing National Coach, Paul Manera, for the amazing opportunities enjoyed by everyone who participated.

Highlights included training at Brigham Young University where the Cougars Division 1 A NCAA college team has its home.  We also visited training at the University of Southern California with Coach Peter Carroll in full flight on not one but two occasions.  There were two high school games where we were in awe of the 120 person team rosters and brass bands just as large.  One fine Saturday morning we watched bunches of seven to eleven year olds running the ball on a full-sized field in the Pop Warner games.  There was never a prouder group of boys than the Australian Outback Development squad who had an informal meet and greet with the young players who came over and shook their hands and looked up to them with very wide eyes.

As for college games, we were delighted to be on-field prior to the Cougars vs Arizona game and the Utah State vs UNLV game which we watched from the bleachers.  In addition we were delighted to attend the tail-gate party prior to the Rosebowl game where UCLA played BYU and where some of us caught up on our beauty sleep, despite the excitement of the on-field entertainment and the game itself.  It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, with so much football to fit in!

There was also a Saturday morning game against Snow Community College, a top team in the NJCAA league who were recently coached by Bronco Meddenhurst, before he went across to the Cougars at BYU where he is now head coach and defensive co-ordinator.  The Australian Outback acquitted themselves well in the game for their sportsmanship and courage and everyone involved noted their love of the game and awesome enthusiasm for the sport.

Our intrepid official managed to fit a couple of cameo appearances in as Head Linesman, along with a lot of shadowing, lunch and post-game conferencing with the officiating crew.  Many thanks to Randy, the official who did the on-field training and Joe, in charge of the chain crew which ran like clockwork never missing a beat.  Needless to say, the experience was exhilarating and a great time was had by all. 

For anyone who has managed to read this far, you may find the secret link to photos and videos at the bottom of this page of interest.