PHIL Bentham knew giving rugby league’s referees the documentary treatment worked – a fan said he could not give them grief after seeing it.
The group of full-time whistleblowers told their stories in Beyond The Whistle, a look at why they get in the middle, how they got there and what they do to stay there.
There is Jack Smith – the former Marine shot in the chest while serving in Afghanistan, Liam Rush – who was making it as his mum Louise lived with terminal cancer – and Chris Kendall – the Bradford-supporting kid and former academy player who meets his family in the stands.
There is also the friendly ‘rivalry’ between the latter and Liam Moore about who gets the finals at Wembley and Old Trafford.
And the film, produced in association with Acme Whistles, shattered many illusions – as referees’ boss Bentham found out.
He said: “The day after it went out was the Ashes Test match at Headingley.
“I was walking to the ground, this bloke came over and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to have a go about the Australian ref in the second test.’
“But he just said, ‘I watched that documentary last night. I’m going to stand here this afternoon and I won’t even be able to shout at the ref after seeing that.’
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“We’ve had loads of stuff from a lot of people, so it’s been really good.
“People tend to think – as I did before I was in refereeing – this bloke turned up and he’s just there to basically ruin your afternoon.
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“I know those thoughts because I had them myself. You don’t think about the training, the fact they might have driven two hours to get there, he’s going to review his game afterwards and he might have stuff going on with his family.”
Another illusion Beyond The Whistle looked to shatter was the one that no matter what is thrown at them, referees do not feel the abuse.
Marcus Griffths received death threats and homophobic slurs on social media – and Bentham has a radical solution.
He added: “The exposure to abuse has increased.
“Previously, once you left the ground and you drove away, you were done unless somebody phoned in a radio show on the way home.
“Now referees, if they’re daft enough to go on social media, are able to see things that could potentially upset them.
“My view to them is, don’t use social media but a lot of them say they’re younger than I am, it’s part of life.
“We have psychology services within our department, somebody professional that they can deal with. It might be to talk about social media abuse or whatever it might be.”
One of the stories in Beyond The Whistle is that of Rush, who took charge of his first Super League match before Louise passed away and was presented his shirt by her.
And Bentham believes that reinforced the notion that the person getting grief, either from the stand or online, is human too.
He told SunSport: “We’re trying to get that across a little bit. These people have got things going in their lives.
“The other bit is that whilst we’re individuals as referees, we’re a team and everybody was so supportive of Liam.
“Every single referee in the group attended his mum’s funeral. That’s the type of group they are – they are really close even though they’re competing with each other.
“And we try to maintain that healthy competition because we want them all to think that they can achieve what they want to achieve.”
