LIAM MOORE has revealed that he left a career behind in law to pursue his dream of being a Super League referee.
Moore, who has a law degree, became one of the RFL’s full-time referees in 2017 before taking on an additional role as part-time Recruitment and Development Manager bringing through and coaching new officials in 2019.
At 25, Moore became the youngest referee to officiate a Challenge Cup Final in 2020 and has now become the Legal and Compliance Case Manager at the RFL.
It’s been a monumental rise for the Wiganer – and he has absolutely no regrets about ditching a law career for rugby league.
“I have a law degree and I had every intention of training to be a solicitor. Ultimately, I was at that point that there was a full-time position at the RFL for refereeing and I was encouraged to go for it,” Moore told League Express.
“I had a big life decision to make at an early stage in my life. Would I go into a law career and be a solicitor or take the chance to be a full-time referee?
“I’m not going to be able to referee in my 40s or 50s so I wanted to grasp the opportunity and take it now.
“It was the best decision I’ve made and the last couple of years I’ve been thankful that the RFL have supported me doing legal work.
“I’ve now got a legal position at the RFL so I’m wearing two hats so to speak. It’s the best of both worlds.”
Moore revealed that he will go back into law once he hangs up his whistle – but that won’t be for a while yet.
“At the time it was a big decision to make but I could go back into it at some point – that’s the plan. There comes a time when you have given enough to the sport or the sport has had enough of you!
“My plan is, as soon as I no longer want to referee, then I will go back into law and progress my full-time career in that, but hopefully I’ve got a long time ahead of me in rugby league.”
Moore did play rugby league at a young age, but quickly found out he would be better pursuing a career in the middle instead!
“I did play but I was very average. I played locally for my team and played through high school but I knew at an early age that I wasn’t quite good enough to make it professionally.
“I came to terms with it pretty early on in my brief playing career. I love playing the game and still play with friends now, but I knew that I never had the ability to go further.”
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