Jessica Halloran: Female referees Kasey Badger and Belinda Sleeman blocked by boys' club
GIVE Kasey Badger a go with the whistle. Give Belinda Sleeman a turn. It’s time to give a woman a shot at refereeing an NRL game writes JESSICA HALLORAN.
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GIVE Kasey Badger a go with the whistle. Give Belinda Sleeman a turn.
It’s time to give a woman a shot at refereeing an NRL game.
They have been waiting. Preparing intensely. Working as touch judges in NRL games and internationals for two-and-a-half years.
They’ve been refereeing games in under-20s, NSW and Queensland Cups for many seasons.
Some argue these women are working twice as hard as their male counterparts in the hope of a turn.
But there is a boys' club standing in the way of female referees.
There are people running the ref ranks who don’t believe these women are up to it yet. But considering the shambolic state NRL officiating is in, isn’t it time for super-fresh talent, someone such as Badger, who has worked her heart out in the hope of being an NRL referee?
The feeling in the NRL hierarchy is the women aren’t ready and, frustratingly, nobody can give a concrete answer when, and if, they ever will be.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg told colleague Phil “Buzz” Rothfield this year he was informed that Badger and Sleeman weren’t fast enough.
Buzz, who has been a strong advocate for female referees, was told by Greenberg the sentiment was while they were both “strong” they didn’t quite have the pace for the game “at this stage’’.
Greenberg also said the NRL would be appointing a woman to the top job only “on merit”.
From those in the know, these women are not lacking merit, what they are lacking is opportunity.
Last year the greatest referee of the modern era, Bill Harrigan, watched Kasey Badger officiate a NSW Cup match. As Harrigan watched on the sideline, he thought, “it is time to give her a go in the NRL”.
Harrigan said if he was still NRL referees boss today he would have given her an opportunity by now.
“She got around the paddock well, she made good decisions,” Harrigan said. “I think if she had have been given a game or two three years ago, it would have been a token appointment. But now? She’s earned it.”
As for the thought Badger or Sleeman may not be fast enough?
“You don’t have to have blindingly good speed, you have to be fit and you learn to get around the field differently to have speed, if you are not as quick … you learn how to track around the field if you have to, it’s like taking shortcuts,’’ Harrigan said.
Harrigan said he can’t be as strong about Kasey making her debut today, as he’s only seen her ref half a game this season.
“But if she has maintained her form from last year and there’s been no other referee that has blown refereeing apart, then she would deserve a crack at it,” he said.
This columnist sat on a TV panel with Kasey five years ago talking about “women in league” issues and even back then she was hungry for a “crack” at it. She began refereeing in the Parramatta junior competition in 2004 and, by 2012, became the first woman to referee Toyota Cup.
It’s clear Badger’s overwhelming quality from our brief meeting was her determination. Last month Kasey’s husband, top NRL referee Gavin Badger, spoke of his great hope that his wife would one day control an NRL game.
“I don’t think there is anyone that works harder than her to be successful,” Badger told Channel 7. “I would be very disappointed if she never got the opportunity to do it because I know how well she would do it.”
In that same interview with Seven, Badger let out a weary laugh when asked when she would be getting a shot at officiating in the NRL.
“It’s a question I wish I knew the answer to,” she said. “I know what I have done, the work that I have put in. I will be ready when that opportunity comes.”
With word the game’s best referee, Matt Cecchin, may be going to Super League, there is set to be a vacancy.
Nearly four years ago, referees manager Tony Archer said a woman would soon take up a prime officiating spot in an NRL game.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt we will see a female referee control an NRL match in the coming years,” he said.
Mid-last year Archer gave another interview stating Sleeman was an “outstanding talent”. An NRL spokesman told me both women were “making strong progress” but couldn’t give a time frame on when a female may make her debut and, if it happened, it would be on “merit”.
So, we wait.
“If it happens, I want it to be because of what I’ve done as an official, not because I’m a female official,” Sleeman said.
Women hold top officiating roles in the NBA, NHL, NFL and even AFL, where Eleni Glouftsis is in her second year of umpiring.
Harrigan understands the magnitude of the decision if the NRL were to give Kasey Badger a chance.
“It would massive,” Harrigan said.
“Plenty of refs have only done one game, two games, over history because they just didn’t make it, they were like a fish out of water. But I say give her a dead rubber, throw her in, see what she has got.”
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Originally published as Jessica Halloran: Female referees Kasey Badger and Belinda Sleeman blocked by boys' club