I'd vote for Bob Brown as the best lower mainland senior men's ref. He treated players and coaches with respect and he got the same back.
Once I yelled at him as he missed some bozo back of the play elbowed one of my young players and bloodied his nose. The young guy was was one just out of juvenile soccer. He came over to the sideline and quietly said "coach that is unlike you to be yelling at me like that." It gave me a chance to tell him what happened. He said, sorry he didn't see it, but he'd keep an eye out.
He headed back to the center of the park and glared at the guy who did it sending him a signal that he was not happy and would be watching. The game finished with no further incidents.
Robby Brown knew had to acknowledge how a coach feels when his guy is being gooned. He also got his message across that he was not about to yelled at without making a Mauricio type display or puffing himself up that MN does.
When I read the title of this thread, the first name that came to mind was Bobby Brown. He only reffed one of my games back about 15 years ago, but I remember thinking at that time that I never had a ref who was as in to the game and had as good a rapport with the players as he was and did. I have not come across a referee who left such an impression as Mr. Brown did.
Locally, I think Paul Ward is an exceptional referee and I like Walks' game a lot as well.
I've registered you for the next Referee Clinic in August and I've also arranged for you to referee Croatia & Inter at the start of the VMSL season. I'm sure you can do a helluva' lot better job than most of us
Yes, and so do the the modern day players.........do you qualify as a player, girth? If you do, I'm going out on a limb and saying you're rubbish. As Walks said, looking forward to you getting your ticket so you can finally show the modern refs how it is done.
On another note, Walks, the ref you guys had last night was outstanding.......except to Animal.