Veteran referee Ben Cummins has revealed he warned his son off becoming a rugby league referee and instead encouraged him to officiate Aussie rules.
The 49-year-old will reportedly hang up the boots at the season’s end according to the SMH, and has ruled over 442 games, 14 Origin clashes and five grand finals.
Cummins’ tally makes him the game’s most experienced referee, having officiated in more games than Bill Harrigan (392), Ashley Klein (371) and Matt Cecchin (369).
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The experienced whistleblower has experienced the wave of criticism that comes with refereeing in the NRL and his 18-year-old son Patrick officiates a rival sport.
“He thought about taking up refereeing rugby league, but I persuaded him to go with AFL,” Cummins said.
“I’m glad he did. It’s less aggressive. In AFL, teams lose points if parents are abusive. He loves it. He’s got a grand final this weekend. He’s a massive Wests Tigers fan, but he just loves his AFL umpiring.”
Cummins’ last game as an NRL referee will come on Saturday when the Dragons face off against the Knights.
He believes he wasn’t “wanted” in the refereeing squad and pointed to his lack of big game appointments as a reason behind his retirement.
Cummins also believes the heavy criticism levelled against referees could see rugby league with a shortage of quality whistleblowers in the future.
“The retention of referees isn’t great,” Cummins said, referencing the statistics. “We do development sessions with young referees and talk to the parents. A lot of it comes from the top down.
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“They see what happens at our level. If there’s another option where you won’t get abused or criticised, even if it’s minimum wage at Maccas, you’ll take that job.”
The NRL has also introduced a wave of new measures to help with officiating the game since Cummins’ first game as a referee in 2006.
He remained steadfast that technology has done nothing to improve the game and instead train the viewer’s focus on refereeing mistakes.
“There’s such a focus on the things we do wrong. The media focus on those decisions, one or two a game, and everything a referee does positively gets missed,” he said.
“There’s so much stuff we do to contribute to the game; hundreds of decisions, managing players, assessing different situations. You get one 50-50 call and everyone focuses on that and then it’s ‘refs in crisis’. Not sure how you fix that. That’s changed. I don’t want to be a part of that.”
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