Referee, assessor, mentor and all round good bloke Peter Miller has recently been added to the small group of Southland Football life members. Peter’s nomination flew through at last week’s meeting and Peter was delighted with the news he’d become a life member. “The nomination blew me away, I’ll be forever grateful. When I’m gone, my name will always be on the board! It’s a nice recognition and I’ll still hang out... assessors never stop assessing!” 

Peter first began refereeing in 1962 and he refereed for two years doing junior games. Back in the day, referees used to wear white shirts, giving an indication of the changes within the game during Peter's involvement. By his own admission, when he was around 17, wine, women and song took over so he gave up refereeing but his interest in the game remained. Fast forward a few years to 1987 and Peter was back with his whistle, “In my forties, I was asked to come back and help the referees because a certain ref in Invers became infamous throughout New Zealand with a really bad decision.” 

Refereeing comes naturally to Peter, “I wanted to ref because I always been a bossy bugger! To be a good ref you needed to know the rules, fitness and it’s a case of being in the right place at the right time.” He worked on his fitness to aid his refereeing and found he a love for staying active, “I became a fitness fanatic, could outrun the young guns. Once in the right position I could make the right call and I went through the grades pretty quickly.” Matches took him all over the South Island and he recalls one of his fondest memories from football being the Southern League Final in 1991/2 between Caversham and Dunedin Tech. 

“It was a final, all on, at the old Caversham ground now where Pak n Save is. I was assessed during the game and I got a good mark, got though coz of my fitness.” He recalls many of his matches with real cheer and he was and still is heavily involved in the mentoring of referees, “I get a buzz from seeing a ref go out there and tell 22 people to shut their cakehole and play the game, it’s dead easy, that’s how it is, you’re telling 22 people to suck eggs and they respect you for that. Any fool can know the rules, it’s about managing the people.” 

Wise words indeed. Peter has plenty of advice for young and aspiring referees, stating that consistency is key, “I can fix refs who are consistently wrong, I can’t fix a ref who isn’t consistent with their decisions.” He acknowledges those that he learnt from in the beginning giving particular praise to Len Sharp and Garth Cowie, “ I learned from them how to ref top games, I l learned so so much from them.” 

Peter has mentored many referees over the years and has thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of his time in football, "I loved mentoring, it was pleasant to see a young person with no clue at the beginning of the season knowing what they're doing halfway through!” No one ever had the audacity to belittle referees around Peter, “It’s well known you don’t bag a ref in front of me, I won’t tolerate it!” Peter has definitely made his mark on the game throughout the Southern region and we look forward to seeing him continue to help influence and develop new referees. 

Wendy Boniface has also been made a Life Member, you can read her story here.
Article added: Friday 09 April 2021