NEWS

Brian started his rugby career while a pupil at Guildford Grammar, where he was part of the 1980 Redmond Cup-winning 1st XV team.  On finishing school, he played one season with the rugby club at WAIT - WA Institute of Technology (now Curtin Uni) before joining UWA.  Brian enjoyed early success as part of the 1982 UWA Colts team that won the grand final.  Mainly playing Reserves, Brian played a handful of Premier games.  One of his contemporaries in his time with the UWA Club was Ian Hailes, who is a fellow Life Member of WARURA (2015). 

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Brian recounted that moving house to another area influenced his decision to retire from playing and he looked into refereeing.  He started as a mature age ref in 1998 with a season or two in Juniors at Britannia and then launched into Seniors.  Brian recalls that local influences as he developed were Kim Lees (Referee Manager at the time), Ron Hutt (leading Premier Grade Ref) and Anthony O'Shea (now a fellow Life Member of WARURA – 2018).  Anthony at the time had recently emigrated to WA and he and Brian would review the appointments together plotting their rise to referee stardom!

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Brian completed his rise to Premier Grade in the early 2000s and spent a few years refereeing at the top local level.  He commented that he loved this experience.  Highlights of his career with the whistle included 1 WAJRU Grand Final, 1 Women's GF and 2 Seniors GFs. 

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During his referee development years, Brian achieved his Level 1 Referee Coach accreditation – in the same class as the famous Julie Skiba (now a fellow Life Member of WARURA – 2010).  Initially, Brian’s aim was to help advance his own refereeing but found coaching novice referees extremely rewarding.  Brian continued his progress as a Ref Coach, achieving the Level 2 Referee accreditation. 

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Brian continued refereeing each week up until 2020 whilst also Ref coaching.  Since then he has concentrated his rugby endeavours as a referee coach.  He says he thoroughly enjoys helping develop the current referees, and hopes to continue for many seasons.

Brian was recognised as one of our leading Ref Coaches when he was asked to take part in leading the inaugural Talent Development Group.  He quickly became one of the driving forces in implementing the TDG programme, working very hard to support the burgeoning talents of our up and coming referees.

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Brian was selected for a referee exchange to Canberra, along with Ref Coach exchange to Brisbane and part of the Ref Coach team for URC in Canberra in 2019.

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Over the years, as well as his on field activities, Brian served several years on WARURA Executive including the role of Treasurer when, as he put it, “the goddam GST came in”.  And we got audited!  With his fellow Exec members impressed by Brian’s sartorial style, he was also asked to take on the role of haberdasher which he carried off with aplomb!

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Brian also served on the CAB, before his TDG involvement took over.

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For those of us that still attend referee meetings, seminars etc, Brian seems to be at them all.  He attends most regular WARURA Club /Education meetings, pre-season seminars, ref coach education sessions etc, and has only missed a few due to inter-state and international business trips. 

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Brian continues as a hardworking Ref Coach, acknowledged by our leading referees as a pragmatic and practical advisor.

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Please acknowledge Brian Eckhart as a Life Member.