BEING a rugby league fan, it has been in the mainstream news recently that the Head of Match Officials, Steve Ganson, has been stood down for an internal review.
Since 2016, Ganson has held the position after previously officiating in the top flight between 1996 and 2013.
But, with the review not expected to be completed for a while, the issue has certainly got people talking.
One former Super League referee, George Stokes, who officiated in 39 Super League and Challenge Cup games between 2011 and 2013, has revealed on his whistling career.
“I loved refereeing. It was enjoyable as a kid being paid a little bit of money doing kids’ games. Then I would progress into the RFL ranks and then progress through there pretty quickly. ” Stokes told League Express.
“I was being promoted really quickly then doing high profile games at a young age. I enjoyed it and made loads of good friends so I wouldn’t change it for the world. I look back at my time refereeing with only fond memories.”
On the topic of Steve Ganson, who has just been stood down by the RFL for an internal review, Stokes had nothing bad to say about the former official on a personal level.
“I’ve known Steve for a long time, he’s from St Helens and I played at Blackbrook for years and knew who he was. We went to trips to Russia when he was a referee on international matches and I went on his stag do.
“On a personal level, I like Steve and he is a good guy. I got on with him really well. When Jon Sharp had been moved on, there were a few that wanted Steve to get the job and thought he would be good for the department. From a personal perspective it’s all really positive. He is maverick character but can be quite combative.”
That is where Stokes pointed fingers at the environment which Ganson had allegedly created.
“From a professional perspective, I resigned because of the environment he had created and I work for a big American company with great leaders and managers.
“I worked for the RFL in a part-time capacity and that shrouded how bad the professional environment actually was.
“I had been offered a full-time role for a number of years but I only took the role for the wrong reasons. I didn’t need money which is a good thing because they don’t get paid much. I took the role and Steve wanted me to do it.
“I told him if he was going to make it more professional and run it the way he had always wanted it to be run, I would do it. Steve complained about the environment he had been a part of and the idea would be that he would make the environment a positive experience for referees. He sold me on that and the fact that I could do my other job simultaneously and work around it.
“Then it was kind of like eight weeks of being in a ridiculous volatile environment where one minute he could be in a good mood and then the next minute a person could make a decision and it would instantly impact how he would manage the squad that week.
“He wasn’t experienced as a manager or a leader of people in that environment and I told him in as many words that the environment he was trying to create was unwise and unsustainable and that he would lose a lot of smart personality ‘types’ because those people wouldn’t stick around and be managed by people who really can’t manage that kind of personality.
“So my experience was volatile, it was good one week then the next it was so different. The week before I resigned it was all bells and whistles and being number one in the group and then I made one bad error in a game and then I was shipped off to York the week after and it wasn’t good enough.
“You make one mistake and you are terrible all of sudden. You can’t make one mistake and it dictate the mood he was in all week. My experience was a very poor one which is why I resigned within eight weeks.
“At the top level individual people have had different reasons why they had left. When you referee an amateur game it is the fans and spectators (that get on your back).
“When I did amateur games to give back to the community, I found it more daunting than a Super League game because we’ve got touch judges, the TV and doctors. You have a massive team around you for Super League and the fans are just water off a duck’s back.
“At an amateur level you really are alone.”
“The main reason really is Ganson’s management style isn’t aligned to smart people working under him. He cannot manage personality vibes.
For now, Stokes is loving life in Australia, having been part of a technology recruitment company for a decade – and he has no desire to return to refereeing.
“I work for a tech recruitment company and have worked for the same company for about ten years,” Stokes continued.
“I worked for the company in the UK and I was doing that full-time as well as part-time refereeing. Then I went full-time refereeing at the same time but resigned pretty quickly having joined the full-time panel.
“About six years ago I moved to Sydney. I grew up with Tim Alouani-Roby, he came over here a few years beforehand and then came to visit me in the UK and told me I would really love it in Australia.
“Ever since then it’s been great, it’s a different way of life, but I’ve not thought about refereeing over here. You can spend years doing it, it was like being on treadmill but as soon as you stop doing it, you don’t particularly miss it.
“I was 14 or 15 when I started and I’m 34 now, but resigned seven years ago.”
