THE Grange, Racing NSW's property at Oxley Island for retired thoroughbreds, presents an entirely new workplace for Bernie Sutton, the NRL's former senior referees manager.
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Sutton, 40, has relocated to the area and is living at Hallidays Point with his young family.
Raised in Coonabarabran, he's enjoying life again in the country. It's a world away from his previous job.
"I always knew that position would have a limited lifespan,'' Sutton explained.
"Clubs' turn over their rosters quite frequently. But that doesn't happen as much with referees, so you need new people coming into the place to keep it fresh and bring in new ideas.''
Sutton pointed out that Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper held the position for two years, Daniel Anderson one, Tony Archer for four before he took over. Sutton had a three year tenure.
Sutton moved to Sydney in 2002 with the aim of breaking into the NRL as a referee. His elder brother. Gerard, was already established in the game.
"That was one of the reasons I moved to Sydney - I was a competitive younger brother,'' Sutton smiled,
"I thought if he (Gerard) can do it, well so can I.''
He eventually moved into the ranks of the whistle blowers in 2005 and made his NRL debut in 2007, controlling a game late in the season between Canberra and Cronulla.
"I think it was round 25 and neither side could make the finals,'' he said.
"And to be honest I don't remember a lot about the game. I remember the buildup but the game itself seemed to go in an instant. I really can't recall any incidents in the match.''
Sutton went on to officiate 37 games in the NRL. However, his progress was cut short by injury.
"I had seven knee operations on the one knee,'' he explained.
"It got to a point where I couldn't referee a game on the weekend and train during the week and referee the next week. I was going game, rehab, rehab, game.
"Much like a player, referees have strengths and weaknesses. My game was largely built around my positional capability to get into different positions to make decisions. The fact I had a physical limitation kind of took away from my game.
"I knew I couldn't perform to the best of my ability and I knew I had to make a decision about my future. But as one door closes, another one opens.''
He retired from refereeing in 2010.
"I was only 30,'' Sutton pointed out.
"Bill Harrigan was coming in as the boss and asked me if I was interested in coming in as a video referee. So I gave it a try and did that for a couple of years.''
However, the role wasn't totally satisfying and he was considering a move back to the bush.
"I didn't come to Sydney to be a video referee,'' Sutton said.
However, Harrigan approached him to be fulltime manager/coach of the NYC (under 20s) referees.
"I decided to give it 12 months to see if I liked it.''
Harrigan then moved on from the overarching position and Daniel Anderson came in.
"And opportunities kept presenting themselves. I wasn't looking to move up the ladder...I kind of fell up the ladder,'' he smiled.
Then came the biggest change of his career - The Bunker.
"I was fortunate to become involved in that and I guess that happened because I was by far and away the youngest video referee and I kind of understood the technology,'' he recalled.
"I got to go to a lot if different organisations to see how they operated and they were all in the northern hemisphere, which was a real eye opener.
"I was able to build relationships with the NBA, the NBL, Major League Baseball and the NHL to see how they operated and adapt it back to what we wanted with The Bunker.''
So now I think one ref is the way to go, based on the rule changes.
- Bernie Sutton
Sutton and Luke Pattern were the senior review officials for all the games in The Bunker's debut season in 2016, with the then NRL CEO Todd Greenberg declaring the innovation would eliminate refereeing errors from the game. So there was an uproar when the first error was made.
"Todd has tried to clarify his statement a few times since,'' Sutton said.
"He said we should always aim for 100 per cent and we wanted 100 per cent. But things arise that in hindsight you'd rather do differently.''
Sutton pointed out that when The Bunker came in, one of the areas it could rule on was overturning scrum feeds.
"In that situation not once did we make the wrong decision,'' he said.
"There were some controversial ones, but what led to the controversy was the transparency of how the decisions were made. Although The Bunker has its own independent vision, we couldn't guarantee the broadcaster would show that.
"So if you're sitting at home in your loungeroom, you'd have no clue as to why those decisions have been made.
"There's always a balance between accuracy and acceptability.''
Sutton said he was in favour of the two referee system, but adds he's happy to see the one referee now in charge of games.
"One of the things I'm most proud of is the way we were able to adapt to situations last year,'' he said.
"There had been discussions as to whether we should have one referee or two and I was pretty adamant that we should have two.
"At the start of last season I had a conversion with Wayne Bennett about ways to eliminate the wrestle from the game.
"Wayne said that something had to be done about the wrestle,'' he said.
Bennett suggested that teams be given an extra two or three tackles instead of receiving a penalty. However, Sutton replied that mathematically that would be difficult for the whistle blowers.
"I said we can't give two or three extra tackles because referees struggle to count to six as it is. We'd have the referees trying to do all subtraction and addition on the run,'' Sutton recalled.
"It would be too complicated. I said if we're going make a change it would have to be six again.''
Sutton later mentioned the matter with NRL head of football elite competitions Graham Annesley and said it might be worth considering.
"Then COVID hit and there was a fair impact on the game financially. Graham raised the idea of going back to one referee for the rest of the season.''
Sutton countered that there could be problems with one ref if the rules remained the same.
"We'd get bogged down with the wrestle,'' he said,.
"I said if we're going to do that we'll have to look at the six again interpretation for ruck infringements, You can't go one ref and not give them a tool to ensure the continuity of the game.''
Annesley agreed, then spoke to NRL chairman Peter V'Landys and the commission and the rule change was approved.
"I don't think there's anyone who would argue that it hasn't been a good change for the game,'' Sutton said,
"The referees also found it better. There's less pressure on them because the game wasn't stopping and the penalties weren't as scrutinised.
"So now I think one ref is the way to go, based on the rule changes.''