Aoraki rugby league referee Reon Hatata has made regional history by being the first official from the region to be appointed to a premiership level game.
Last month Mr Hatata took on touch line duty for Otago versus Canterbury in the New Zealand Rugby League National Premiership . He said getting to be a part of a high level officiating team was a big deal.
‘‘It actually meant quite a bit to be able to do those matches.
‘‘It was an awesome experience and I look forward to doing more of those games.’’
Mr Hatata grew up in Invercargill, a rugby leagueobsessed town, which meant naturally he became a league player himself.
At age 15 he started work, heading out to sea on a commercial fishing vessel, a job he continued for the next 30 years.
He would be away weeks at a time but whenever he was back home he would play league.
Eventually he would find himself a bit further north and would link up with the Timaru Warriors for a couple of years.
The Warriors folded, so Mr Hatata took up president’s grade rugby as he didn’t have to train but just show up to games.
Four years ago he decided to retire from life at sea and just wanted to play again, but he found his body wasn’t quite what it used to be and that’s where the his refereeing adventure began.
‘‘I found a week wasn’t long enough to recover any more, but I still wanted to be involved.
‘‘I talked to a friend who was touch judging a local game and by the next week I was on the field in a brand new Aoraki rugby league referee strip and from there I decided that’s what I wanted to do, that’s how I would still be involved.’’
With Aoraki being such a fresh and growing region for rugby league, Mr Hatata said the resources to become a referee were not quite there.
‘‘I couldn’t learn from watching, so I had to travel out of the region to gain that knowledge from other referees in the country.
‘‘It was a lot of hard work, a lot of travelling, I’d go to Christchurch, leave at 7am do three games and by the time I’d get back it would be 7pm, I’d be totally shattered but wake up the next morning just waiting for it to be next Saturday to do it all over again.’’
Aoraki Rugby League has been around for eight years and Mr Hatata has now been a referee for four but he is currently the only full time official in the region.
‘‘We have a few that have refereed before, that will fill gaps but they aren’t available all the time, whether that be because of work or family commitments, I fully believe those things come before sport, but that does mean some weeks we struggle to fill the games we have.
‘‘At the moment we have one guy training, he has had sole charge of a couple of senior games and he will become a full time ref next year.’’
He said in an ideal world the region would have a dozen referees so that every game there would be someone in the middle and two touch judges.
‘‘It would give the game so much, better shape, it just gives the game what it deserves, we don’t just want to be out there winging it.’’
There are several reasons the region is lacking in referees according to Mr Hatata, one being work commitments another being older blokes wanting to keep on playing but the biggest, the abuse.
‘‘People don’t want to be shouted at, people don’t want to be abused and a lot of people don’t realise there are actually three teams playing rugby league.
‘‘It’s not that team playing this team, there’s another team and that is the team of the referees.
‘‘When people realise that, they don’t seem to shout, they don’t seem to hurl abuse.
He said people see them as an easy target.
‘‘The referee is the one who blows the whistle when something happens, a dropped ball, well the ref didn’t drop that ball, a high tackle, the ref blows the whistle and the crowd goes ‘come on ref’ but the ref didn’t make that high tackle, but they still seem to get the abuse because they blew the whistle.
‘‘We are just there to facilitate the rules of the game, we’re not there to determine who is going to win or determine how the game is played, we are there to make sure the rules are followed by both teams.
‘‘There is a definitely a culture out there that separates referees from the game, we aren’t always included in a game, we’re just the guy in the middle with the whistle.’’
Mr Hatata said the key to being a good ref was doing everything with confidence and ensuring the players knew you were in charge and to treat you with respect.
He hoped the region would continue to grow and more people would give refereeing a try.
‘‘Get in contact, turn up to a game, if you like what you see from the referees have a chat and give it a go.’’
