SORRY guys, I’m going to burst your bubble. You’ve got it wrong.

The NRL referees aren’t actually trying to ruin the game. They aren’t blind and they are ‘getting ‘em on side’.

How do I know? Because after sitting on the lounge one night, baffled by some referee calls, I decided to give it a go myself. I mean, how hard can it be?

I know the rules, I can judge 10 metres and it doesn’t take a genius to blow a whistle.

Round 20

But it turns out there’s a lot more than yelling ‘held’ and pointing to the spot when it comes to officiating a game.

So I joined the referees at ANZ Stadium for a training session which involved decision making under fatigue, brain training and a bit of good old fashioned fitness.

So what did I discover? Well, for starters, these blokes are super fit. And despite Des Hasler’s conspiracy theory, they aren’t Voldemorts. They’re good blokes. Helpful. Funny even.

To see how my training day with the officials went, press play on the video at the top of the page or for the nitty gritty, continue reading below.

HELLO SIR

Cameron Black explains how the session will work. Source: FOX SPORTS

I arrive at ANZ Stadium at 9.15am ahead of our training session debrief scheduled for 9.30am. After NRL media manager Glenn Jackson meets me in the car park, he brings me to the home sheds warm-up area where I meet everyone.

Cameron Black is the first person I meet. He’s the referees’ strength and conditioning coach and will be running the session. Yes, the refs have an ‘S and C coach’. What an amazing time to be alive.

Cam tells me that today’s session is designed to be done in pairs just like on the field with a pocket and lead ref. My partner is veteran official Gavin Badger.

He and his wife Kasey, who is also a referee, say hello and I have to say I immediately gravitate to ‘the Badge’. He tells me he’s just come from weights training where he’d done a chin-up with 50 kilos strapped to his waist.

Credit to him, that’s impressive and as a bloke who loves lifting weights, I was pretty pumped to be paired with him. It feels funny to admit but we’re actually a lot alike.

Who would have thought, a journalist and an NRL referee getting on?

To be honest, I’d love to have a beer with this bloke. He’s quick-witted and he can have a joke at his own expense. I think ‘Badge’ is a guy most blokes would gravitate to if we were all sitting at a bar.

KICK OFF

The referees go through their warm up drills. Source: FOX SPORTS

Now that the introductions are out of the way, it’s time to warm up.

The idea is to get your heart rate up before getting into the session which has been named ‘BTUF’ (sounds like Be Tough) but it stands for “Brain Training Under Fatigue”.

As we do variations of shuttle runs to warm up, Badge and I take time to get to know each other a little. We talk about weightlifting and why I am doing the session.

The whole reason I wanted to take part in the session was to get a greater appreciation for what the guys go through in preparation for a game.

As a fan, it’s easy to make the right call every time from the comfort of our living room with a resting heart rate but how tough is it under pressure with your heart knocking against your chest?

Well, we’re warm and now I’m going to find out.

The way the day has been designed is you and your partner go from station to station. Each scenario is different and your performance is recorded and monitored throughout.

There’s about seven different stations all up. First up, we’re on the rowers. Time to get to work.

BRAIN TRAINING

Exercise — Rower and moving shapes game, plus three relative comms where you must ID the coaching theme

Two rowers are positioned next to each other. We strap our feet in and Badge is handed an iPad.

I start rowing as hard and fast as I can while Badge starts working on a puzzle. This station is designed to test your focus, divided attention, memory and visual awareness.

After rowing my guts out and blowing harder than a five year old in front of a birthday cake, Badge hands me the iPad. I hit start and three shapes appear on the screen.

A second later, the shapes move and another six or so shapes appear and I have to select the original three. The game measures reaction time and accuracy. Simple enough right? Maybe not. I completely bombed it.

Brain training on the rower. Source: FOX SPORTS

At the end of the 10 questions, I have a score of 20 per cent success. Epic fail.

To make things more difficult, while I’m doing the puzzle, I have a referees’ coach barking communications at me which I have to remember.

At the end of the game, I’m asked to repeat the three commands and identify the theme. I think they were along the lines of — ‘hand on the ball’, ‘markers not square’ and ‘holding’.

To me that says the defenders are trying to slow down the play the ball. So what’s the theme? Ruck infringements.

After a quick pat on the back, I hand the iPad back to Badge and I get back to rowing. We end up doing this drill twice. The next time I get 80 per cent. It was the confidence boost I needed.

DECISIONS UNDER FATIGUE

Exercise — Bike and vision (Make a decision — play on, penalty, lost ball)

Now we’ve got two different stations with Shayne Hayne at one and former Canberra coach Andrew Dunemann at the other.

We hop onto exercise bikes and are told to keep the speed over 100. So we start peddling. Now we’re about to watch 30 clips on the big screen in front of us. We’re told to call out the number of the clip and make a decision on what we see.

Decision making on the bike. Source: FOX SPORTS

“Clip one, leg pull, penalty,” Badger said.

Whoops, guess I missed that one.

“Yeah, what he said,” I told Hayne.

He told me to make my own decisions so I’m watching the action intently and trying to keep my legs pumping so the bike stays above 100. Multi-tasking sucks.

I start to get in the groove of things. I call out a few decisions before Badge and for the most part we make the same decisions.

“Not too bad,” Hayne said as I get off the bike.

But in the next room, Dunemann is running the drill and asks Badge to keep quiet and let me make the decisions by myself. So Badge peddles beside me but doesn’t say a thing.

I’m on my own, making rapid fire decisions. I turn to Badge and ask him how I’m going. He nods with raised eyebrows.

Nathan Ryan makes decisions on his own. Source: FOX SPORTS

“He’s starting to get cocky now,” Archer said from behind us.

He was right. I was feeling confident. That was until Archer called me out on it and then it spooked me.

Geez, what happened there? I missed that clip. Dunemann asks me what my decision is.

“I’d love to see a replay,” I said.

As a viewer we have instant replays and multiple angles at our disposal. But not today.

We all complain about going to the bunker too often but the fact is the viewer has a better angle than the referees do half of the time.

LIVE ACTION

Exercise — Three shuttle runs, straight into goal line game drills (Head ref and pocket ref, attackers and defenders)

Everyone does this station three times. First Badge and I were acting as the attacking team. We had ‘The General’, Luke Patten, joining us as we played with the ball. Three other refs defended, while a lead and pocket ref made decisions on our game.

It was a bit of fun running the ball and later on defending the line but it wasn’t until I jumped in the pocket as Badge ran the action, that the reality of it all hit me. My job in the pocket was to help Badge identify infringements. It could be a hand on the ball or a leg pull, maybe a cheeky face rub.

“We don’t undervalue their worth to the team performance,” Archer said of the pocket ref.

“They make a lot of contributions to the overall performance.”

Russell Smith, who is a former official, now the head coach, was running this drill.

Badge was strong in his decisions and I was kind of just lurking in the background like a shy kid who was trying to blend into the background.

Defending during the decision making drill. Source: FOX SPORTS

‘You’re up Nath’, Russell shouts. Guess that means I’m the lead official now.

“You want to give me a run on Friday Night Footy? You’ll want to by the time I’m finished today,” I said to him.

“We’ll see about that,” he responded.

So away we go. I call held. The tackler peels off. There’s a lost ball and I call it as I see it and then a bloke goes over the line and I have no idea whether he’s in, out, grounded it, held up.

“Let’s go to the bunker,” I said half joking.

“You’ve got to make a decision. Quick,” Russell Smith said.

One of the ‘defenders’ comes over and says ‘he dropped it, he dropped it’. I said ‘go away, you’re not the captain’ and gave him a wink. I thought it was quite clever. He chuckled so I guess he did too but I still had no idea what happened so I was hooked and Badge took back control.

“You did this last so there was 45 minutes of pre-fatigue there,” Black explained.

“That’s where our specific decision making comes into play.”

He’s not wrong. When the action is smack, bang in front of you, it’s tough keeping an eye on everything.

I can see Tony Archer in the background with his arms crossed and smirk on his face. Yep. You’ve won this round Arch.

THE 100 CLUB

Trying to find the numbers. Source: FOX SPORTS

Last station of the day and it’s one of the trickiest.

We have to do a circuit of shoulder presses, bent over rows and push-ups while retaining scores thrown at us and players on report. Then there’s a grid with numbers mixed from 1-100 which we need to highlight in order.

“Scorpions score a try but don’t convert,” the trainer yells.

“Devils score a try and kick the goal. Number seven, Scorpions on report, leg pull. Scorpions score and convert.”

These communications are given while we lift weights and now we need to find the numbers. We have about 40 seconds to find as many as we can.

Then back to the weights and more commands get thrown our way. I was keeping track of the Scorpions so they’ve got 10 points from memory. No idea who is on report though. Back to the grid board. Badge is on the controls so I’m trying to point them out with my finger.

Lifting the weights. Source: FOX SPORTS

Badge mentions that it was common for blokes like Henry Perenara to complete the grid and find all 100 numbers. Wow.

I asked him about how much the training has evolved during his time as an NRL official.

“The fitness levels we’re at from where we’ve come from is outstanding and the level we expect us to be at, a lot of it is driven by us and not the coaching staff,” Badger said.

“If we don’t feel like someone is pulling their weight, we’re pretty quick to jump on them.”

After five minutes, we’re both spent and we’ve only found about 40 numbers. I get my score tally right and so does Badge but I don’t know who was on report or why. Badge nails his. And the penalty count? Couldn’t tell you that either.

My mum always said I wasn’t very good at multi-tasking.

FULL-TIME

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t think it would be as difficult as it was. The amount of information these blokes have to retain is ridiculous.

At the end of the session I thanked the group for having me and being so encouraging throughout the experience. I told them I’d hoped by filming and writing about my experience, I could give the public a better insight into how hard they were working and hopefully reach a couple of fans so they weren’t so critical of them.

Jared Maxwell glanced towards me and said matter of fact; “that won’t happen.”

A few of the others laughed. But they seem at peace with it. It comes with the territory.

But how did I do?

The referees stretch after the training session. Source: FOX SPORTS

“Your retention of information was really good — that might be part of your job experience,” Archer said.

“You fatigued a little bit in the middle. I don’t think you liked going from the rower to the run. The shuttles shortened you up but other than that, I thought it was good.”

At the end of the day, it’s pretty simple. The referees are there to do a job and whether you agree with their decisions or not, they’re working hard to get them right.

They’re fans of the game just like you or I and I’m not saying you have to like them but we should certainly respect them. I do. I respect their fitness, their intelligence and their commitment to the game.

So next time you’re upset by a call they make, just remember, how much they have to do and how hard they are working.

And rather than boo them as they leave the field at full-time, stand and applaud. Because whether you want to admit it or not, without them — there is no game.

So to all the officials out there, thank you for everything you do and just remember ... ‘get ‘em on side’.