Seven Canberra referees chosen for A-League gigs

Four Capital Football referees have been selected to officiate in the A-League Men's, including assistant referees Owen Goldrick, Greg Taylor and Adam Powers, and assistant VAR referee Richard Naumovski.

And in the A-League Women's, a trio who made history in August 2020 at a men's NPL clash, by becoming the first all-female team to officiate a top level match in the ACT, have been reselected to officiate. Georgia Ghirardello will take to the centre with her whistle, joined by assistant referees Lauren Hargrave and Delfina Dimoski.

Dimoski, who is eyeing her ninth season in the ALW, said the ACT had a proud history of being one of the smallest federations with the highest percentage of representation at a national level.

And it showed, with all six on-field officials last season earning themselves a referee spot in the finals series.

"We also have one of the highest levels of experience, so last season three of us clocked 50 matches at the national level," she said.

"It's definitely something we pride ourselves on and we hope to inspire the next generation. I think it gives a lot of faith behind the development pathway that is offered through Capital Football and the support that's offered to our officials in terms of officiating on our NPL competitions, the training that we are provided and work through and just the caliber of referees that we've developed generally, so it's pretty exciting."

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The ALM is due to get underway on November 19, followed by the ALW on December 3. The new names were part of a rebrand by the APL last week to ditch the W-League and Y-League titles to make way for the A-League Women's, A-League Men's and A-League Youth.

"It's great that they've actually unified the branding, because, I think, it is the right step in the right direction in terms of inclusiveness of language, and trying to actually foster the fact that football is for everybody," Dimoski said.