Harden local, Pat Walsh has recently had the great honour of receiving the NSW Rugby League Referees Association award for the Grand Final Referee of the Andrew Johns Cup named after him.
Last Friday night, Walsh attended the NSW Rugby League Referee Association’s award night at the Canterbury League Club in Sydney, alongside over 100 referees in attendance.
Walsh presented the 2022 award simply named the Pat Walsh Trophy to Ryan Micallef, the inaugural winner of the award. Walsh was quite emotional when he found out that the perpetual NSW Rugby League Referees Association trophy for the referee in the Grand Final of the Andrew Johns Cup would be named after him.
“A fortnight ago I got a phone call from Jeff Whitten, who was the secretary of the CLRA, asking if I was happy enough to have my name on the trophy and I was over the moon. I got a little emotional about it. You don’t go out looking for the accolades, you just go out trying to do your best,” Walsh said.
Born in Grenfell, Walsh has had a long and storied history in the sport of Rugby League across the decades, starting off volunteering in the sport over 40 years ago.
“I was over in Young in 1979, and I was watching my young fella Steven play under 8’s and I was observing the referee. I made a comment if I couldn’t do a better job than what the ref did, I’d give the sport away,” Walsh recalled.
“Tony Young was standing behind me and challenged me to take it on, so that’s where I started.
“My first ticket was correspondence, and for the first couple of years, I just did some junior league locally here in Harden. Then in ‘82, I sat in front of Jack Harris and went through the magnetic board to get my international badge.”
Bruce Chaplin and Tony Young introduced Pat to Peter Cochran, who was the Head of Education for the Development of Referees, and got Pat involved in Group 9 and 10. Walsh worked as a Game Development Officer for CRLRA for 25 years.
He also spent 13 years as the NRL Referees Development Officer.
To add to his long list of achievements and honours, Walsh is a life member of various leagues and associations throughout Southern NSW, including Group 9 and Group 16 referees.
Walsh was the Group 9 JRL President for 10 years, as well as a coach in 1980.
He also now holds eight life memberships across the board, with the recent additions of the Country Rugby League Referees Association and NSW Rugby League Referees Association.
In 2002, Walsh won the Denis Braybrook award, which is awarded for the best service to rugby league and refereeing right across Australia. Refereeing can be a very selfless and thankless task, with players and supporters often arguing with refs, a challenge that Pat found to be one of the toughest while in the job. “What you do learn is how to handle people.
The biggest thing is that you’ve got to have a pretty thick skin to be able to become a referee, because it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re always going to cop it.
“But if you get a lot of satisfaction out of it, you know, you go out and do your best, that you will get that respect. If you give respect, you’ll earn respect.
“[Refereeing] It makes a much better person out of you. I encourage anyone and everyone to take it on. I’ve been very passionate about it all my life since I started. I didn’t realise I would, but I have.”
Walsh’s career in the industry suddenly changed when he got a large stroke of luck.
“My biggest break was when I went out to Temora, the Canberra Raiders were playing the Riverina side in the mid ‘80s. I turned up and I was the only official on the touchline, they said you’re in the centre refereeing the game,” he recalled. “Don Furner, former Raiders coach came up to me after the game to congratulate me and told me I had a future in the game.
“I’ve been very lucky with some big games. I’ve refereed three Woodridge Cup Group 9 second division grand finals, 16-18 reserve grade grand finals as well.” Walsh retired from refereeing in the early 2000’s, tearing his achillies in the reserve grand final in front of a packed crowd, which put him out of the sport for a while.
“I tried to make a comeback but it’s very hard when you tear your achillies, he said. The game has evolved greatly over the years, with Pat not being the biggest fan of the technological advances in today’s game.
“I feel sorry for the NRL guys today because they’ve got about 30 cameras looking at them and everything’s so close. Technology today like the bunker is taking over the game,” Walsh admitted.
“The game is so different to what is was back in the ‘70s and ‘80s with all rule changes.”
Walsh is still very passionate about refereeing and proud of his career in the sport as a whole. “I’m just very grateful for the respect that I’ve received and no matter where I go, people come up and talk to me, even ex-players who I’ve sent off still talk to me,” he said.
“Years ago, we’d have to get changed in our cars, do the games, then go to the home dressing sheds and have a shower. We’d all go down to the local and have a squash and they’d come up and talk to me and ask why I did this or that.
“I was very fortunate to have meet so many people. When I started with the CRL and NRL my area went from Eden, through Wollongong and Broken Hill.”
Tim Warren
