A referee who well and truly left his mark amongst his peers in the NSW Rugby League Referees Association – Phil Cooley – has died unexpectedly at his Sydney home. He was 72.
NSWRLRA executive director Greg McCallum said Cooley was universally admired for his grace as well as refereeing ability.
“No-one ever had a bad word to say about him. I know we say that a lot about people but it was so true of Phil,” McCallum told nswrl.com.au
“He’s one of those genuine, quiet achievers when it came to his own career but a loud achiever for everyone else.
“He was so generous with his time in mentoring, coaching, advising others in their officiating careers. Phil did a lot of that while he was in the middle of his own career.”
Cooley began his refereeing career in Newtown District Junior Rugby League and was graded by the NSWRL Referees Association in 1982, the same year as McCallum.
“Our careers were intertwined. Apart from being colleagues, like a lot of people I became great friends with Phil.”
NSWRLRA boss at the time Dennis Braybrook appointed Cooley to debut as a Winfield Cup competition referee in 1986 - he went on to referee 30 top-level games.
He was the only referee to sin bin Parramatta Eels star and True Blue Peter Sterling.
Cooley was part of the officiating team for the last ARL Grand Final in the split competition with Super League, played at the Sydney Football Stadium in 1997, when Newcastle beat Manly Warringah 22-16.
He was also touch judge the 1996 and 2000 first grade grand finals.
He became the 29th person to officiate a NRL match, handling the opening round of the new competition in 1998.
In total, Cooley officiated 516 NRL games - including eight State of Origins. He was a video referee for 279 games including the 2003 and 2007 Grand Finals.
The stats do not include the thousands of games he attended to assess and coach the next generation of NRL referees.
Cooley became a Life Member of the NSWRLRA in 1994 and was High Performance squad coach for NSWRL up until 2016.
The NSWRL would like to extend its sincere condolences to Cooley’s family and friends.
