LANSDOWNE boy Lance Greenshields became just the ninth official in A-League football history to notch 100 matches as an assistant referee.
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Greenshields, 32 and now living in Sydney, was on the line for the Central Coast and Adelaide clash at the Central Coast Stadium.
He remembers when he made his A-League debut.
"It was on November 7, 2011, when Sydney FC played the Gold Coast,'' he said.
"Gold Coast don't even exist anymore.''
Greenshields played football with the Lansdowne Lions. He was a member of the Lansdowne sides that played in what was then known as the Oxley-Manning Premier League, a precursor to the Football Mid North Coast Premier League. However, injury problems saw him take up the whistle when he was around 18 - although there was a further incentive.
"I needed some extra pocket money and that was as good a way as any to get it,'' Greenshields laughed.
"And it was also a way to learn new skills and hone those skills.''
He continued officiating when he moved to the city to attend university.
"It was an outlet from studies. Something to do on the weekends away from the books,'' Greenshields explained.
Gradually he started to work his way through the grades before the A-League came calling.
He doesn't remember being particularly nervous before his first match.
"Once the game started I knew I had a job to do. I concentrated on that. It's the same now - I block everything else out, it doesn't matter if you're in front of 10 people or 70,000.''
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In fact, Greenshields knows what it's like to officiate in front of 70,000, or 66,000 at least. At the beginning of the year he became a FIFA assistant referee - one of only nine in Australia and as such can control international fixtures. This resulted in him going to Japan for a friendly between Japan and Colombia at Yokohama.
"It was surreal,'' he said.
Now he's looking forward to getting more opportunities on the world stage. However, he accepts the fact that the 2022 World Cup is out of the reach.
"I've only just got onto the panel,'' he explained.
"They'll only take the top two to the World Cup and it's not going to be me. I'll keep trying and I think the World Cup in 2026 is a more realistic goal.''
However, Greenshields said he will get the opportunity to be on the line for World Cup qualifiers and other international fixtures. He's also looking forward to adding to the number of A-League appointments and eventually getting to 200 games.
"A grand final is certainly one of my goals,'' he said.
