From The King to the Whiz and Tugger: Inside rugby league’s long history of referee impersonators

Some of rugby league’s most iconic characters have lifted the curtain on the dark arts of impersonating referees in the wake Josh Curran’s bizarre penalty. We reveal the game’s greatest referee impersonators.

With his cheeky motor mouth, South Sydney legend Craig Coleman would imitate a referee every week by calling players off-side or demanding opponents get off a tackled player.

“Sometimes when I called them off-side, the opposition would actually listen and let you run past them,” Coleman laughed. “I was always talking like a referee.”

Ex-Balmain hooker Ben Elias recalled a match when he yelled out that a try would be disallowed for a forward pass.

“‘That’s forward. It’s definitely no try, it was forward’,” Elias said on-field.

The pass wasn’t forward but the referee listened to the persuasive Elias – and it was disallowed.

Three-time premiership-winner Paul Langmack would sneakily stand off-side behind an opposition defender at the ruck and tell him to go right at the play-the-ball. That meant his own attacking teammate, having seen and heard Langmack, would head in the opposite direction untouched.

Rugby league players have a long history of impersonating referees.

Langmack reckons he and players from his era would have been sin-binned every week for impersonating a referee.

One player from the 1970s said: “I would give a running commentary during the game by mimicking a referee. It was part of the game.”

The comments come after Canterbury player Josh Curran was penalised by referee Wyatt Raymond for not acting “in the true spirit of the game”.

As Bulldogs winger Blake Wilson took a hit-up out of Canterbury’s dangerzone, Curran yelled “Matt you’re off, Matt you’re off” to Parramatta player Matt Doorey as if to point out the defender was offside.

Raymond considered the comment to be misconduct with Curran condemned on-field for impersonating the call of a referee to gain an advantage.

Paul Langmack reveals some of the exponents of impersonating referees.

The bizarre incident happened during the Bulldogs’ 16-8 win over Parramatta at CommBank Stadium on Sunday. Curran was not charged by the NRL match review committee.

“I would have been penalised every set of six. Wally Lewis used to yell out, I did as well, Craig Coleman, Ben Elias, Mark Bugden, Gary Freeman, Ricky Stuart, Steve Roach, and Terry Lamb. What about Mick Ennis? They would have been sin-binned every game,” Langmack said.

“It was part of the game. Banter is part of the fabric of the game. In sport, you do everything to win. You know what I mean?

Curran penalised for impersonating referee.

“No-one scored a try on Sunday, there wasn’t a break. He didn’t mention the bloke’s name. Not in the spirit of the game? I’ve never heard that before.”

Coleman added: “We would have been penalised every game. It was a ridiculous and silly penalty, honestly.”

NRL rules do stipulate players cannot impersonate a referee but Langmack said Raymond “should be stood down for a lack of common sense.”

“I feel sorry for the refs – they shouldn’t be mic’d up. They can’t have any banter. (Ex-ref) Mick Stone used to say to me: ‘Langers, get on side, you’re making me look bad.’ Imagine a ref saying that now? Refs can’t say anything to players anymore and they can’t have a relationship with the players.”

Canberra legend Laurie Daley reckons teammate Ricky Stuart was the master.

“Ricky was the best at it ... It was happening way before even I started playing and then continued on when I was playing and no one really had an issue with it,” Daley said.

“People found it quite funny, actually, and the coach would be getting into you if you got caught out responding to an opposition player like that.”

Originally published as From The King to the Whiz and Tugger: Inside rugby league’s long history of referee impersonators