There are few jobs in the world in which grown men will scream obscenities in your face. Few work places feature missiles being hurled at you as you leave it. Few jobs see people threaten you with death for doing that job correctly.
Politicians, police and ambulance workers’ health and safety can be compromised on alcohol-soaked Saturday nights. Journalists can be seen as “the enemy” for reporting truth. And so can rugby league referees, modern-day pariahs of “the greatest game of all”.
News that one of their number, Matt Cecchin, one of Australia’s best and most experienced referees, has declared that he’s quitting the NRL because he can no longer cope with “the noise” – including but not limited to death threats – begs the question: how did it come to this?
As Cecchin told Fairfax Media in a raw and revealing piece on Friday, after ruling (without throwing to video replay) that Andrew Fifita had been stripped of the ball in Tonga’s World Cup semi-final loss to England – a decision proven correct by video and for which the NRL’s chief executive Todd Greenberg offered a high-five – Cecchin was bombarded with abuse and death threats. And not just to himself – his family were targeted too.
Former top referee and administrator Greg McCallum tells The Guardian that he’s saddened but not surprised that Cecchin will quit the NRL at season’s end. “What Matt was subjected to after making a courageous and 100% correct decision was absolutely disgraceful,” he says. “It’s unbelievable what happened to him.
“This could be a significant tipping point: a referee at the top of his game wanting to walk away because he feels unhappy about what he’s doing. There will have to be ramifications.”
Threats on social media weren’t the only “noise” that drove Cecchin out. In 2017 he refereed three State of Origins and the grand final. This season referees’ bosses Tony Archer and Gerard Sutton have preferred others for the plumb jobs.
It’s been a significant – and to most mystifying – fall from grace. Cecchin’s three Origins and grand final are regarded as some of the game’s best ever big match performances. He missed out on the World Cup final following a decision that was correct.
“Something significant changed inside him after that,” says McCallum. “There’s been a tipping point. He went into the off-season very unsure of himself and where he stood.”
Cecchin has told Greenberg that NRL referees need a permanent sports psychologist. In a profession as potentially laden with mental health issues, it seems a no-brainer. Cecchin revealed to Fairfax that he sees a therapist twice a day. Indeed it was his therapist, Rosie Stanimirovic, with whom he agreed that the 2018 NRL season should be his last.
So the pressure, to an extent, is off Cecchin. Yet scrutiny and by extension pressure remains on his colleagues. And it’s not shrinking. Each of their decisions is analysed and debated down to the smallest mega-pixel. The anonymity of social media invests some people with the freedom to say appalling things. Yet according to McCallum the top referees largely ignore abuse from “mug punters”. For the game’s best referee to walk away speaks to other issues.
“To keep people like Matt in the game you need people working with refs who understand the pressures they’re under,” says McCallum. “Who understand thought processes. Who can deal with mental wellness, and see little triggers.
“He’s a great referee and to lose a man of his ability is a big loss. Five months ago he was by the leading referee in the world. Now he’s walking away.”
It’s hard to blame him.
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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
