Meet the South Canterbury man confronting bad sideline behaviour with lollipops

Have you ever been at a children’s sports event and one parent is getting a little too into the game?

There isn’t actually any point in asking that question as almost everyone has seen this, and it’s not fun to a part of.

Abusing referees, the parents of players, and the actual young players are harsh realities of Saturday morning sports, and that’s why South Canterbury Rugby chief executive Craig Calder has a plan to put a stop to them.

Sideline Spies have been rolled out down in South Canterbury and they seem to be a great success.

They simply approach the offending parent and present them with a green lollipop while telling them to “suck on that”.

According to Craig, the spies “only issued three lollipops this weekend” which was a significant improvement.

The program has been received surprisingly well down there, Craig only has had one parent fail to see the funny side of it and “go berserk”.

Let’s hope initiative takes off, and we see Sideline Spies populating every sideline around the country sometime soon!