Aspiring referees put to the test to celebrate Women in League Round

While the game celebrates the involvement and opportunities for women across rugby league this week, the next generation of female NRL officials came together on Wednesday to take part in a valuable training session.

NRL match officials invited junior and senior female referees from both Queensland and New South Wales to join in on a brain training under fatigue session at Redfern Oval, with over 40 budding NRL and NRLW referees put to the test as they ran through the kind of physical and mental training involved with being an NRL official.

Riding an exercise back while being tested on NRL rules, memorising players names and teams while running up and down the iconic suburban ground, referee Belinda Sharpe said the session not only provided a taste of the day in the life of an NRL whistle blower but celebrated the growth of female officiators in the game.

“Being Harvey Norman Women In League Round, we took the opportunity to invite some young female referees in to join us for the day, experience a session and ask us some questions,” Sharpe told pan66.com.

“I think people think as referees we just turn up, blow a whistle and away we go but there’s a lot of mental and physical preparation which goes into what we do.

“I certainly didn’t have these opportunities when I was coming through as a ref so it’s so exciting to see how much the profession has developed.

“At the moment we have over 700 female officials in Australia which is fantastic, that’s increased 10 per cent this year alone.”

This year’s theme for the round is ‘Play Your Part to Change the Story' with Sharpe – the first woman to in Australian rugby league's history to referee a professional first-grade men's match – witnessing firsthand the continual growth of female involvement in the game.

“It’s a special round. It’s changed over time. It used to be predominantly about thanking our mums, sisters and wives involved in the game but I think it’s moved on and evolved a lot more,” she said.

“The game is in such a great place at the moment and it’s still progressing which is such a great time so I think it’s about recognising all the different women in our game in all different areas.”

For 21-year-old up-and-coming NRL referee Tori Wilkie, the day came as an important reminder of the pressures associated with officiating, recalling key information and make decisions on the run and whilst fatigued.

Wilkie made the trip down from the Gold Coast after officiating her first NRLW game as touch judge for the Titans and Cowboys in Round 1.

“I originally got into refereeing from just being around footy. My brother played and my Mum was on the committee and Dad was a league safe so it was a way I could be involved also,” Wilkie told pan66.com.

“Gradually as I’ve gone up the ranks, I’ve learnt that there’s a lot more to refereeing than just blowing the whistle, there’s a lot of different components.

“No one really thinks twice about the decisions you make right, they only remember the wrong decisions so you’re constantly under scrutiny and I think doing this session shows everyone what goes into refereeing.

“It’s great to see all the girls here because when I started there was only one or two other girls at the Gold Coast and now I think we’ve got over 10.”