The NRL has maintained that anger directed at referee Kasey Badger during Saturday’s fiery clash between Wests Tigers and Canterbury was not a “gender issue”, as it emerged the female whistleblower deactivated her social media accounts every weekend to avoid reading hateful messages.
Badger will remain in the first-grade rotation this weekend despite her controversial performance on Saturday. The Tigers had three decisions overturned via captain’s challenges, while Aidan Sezer was not sent to the sin bin for a tackle on Josh Curran that drew a grade-three dangerous contact charge from the match review panel and a four-game ban. Badger will oversee Sunday’s Roosters v Warriors clash at Allianz Stadium.
The image of fired-up Tigers forward David Klemmer standing over Badger after she had sin-binned him for dissent late in the game was particularly confronting.
NRL head of elite competitions Graham Annesley said on Monday Klemmer was lucky he had not been sent off, having ignored an initial directive to leave the field, while Canterbury pair Reed Mahoney and Matt Burton, as well as Sezer, were all lucky to avoid being binned.
Bulldogs prop Sam Hughes was issued a grade one contrary conduct charge after he appeared to bump Badger during the first half as she became caught between players in the defensive line. In all, the NRL issued six charges and $11,800 in fines after one of the most ill-tempered matches of the season.
Annesley, however, said Badger’s inexperience, not her gender, was to blame for the pile-on that resulted in Badger trending at No.1 over the weekend on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
Kasey Badger has resorted to deactivating her social media accounts every weekend because of the abuse.Credit: NRL Images
“This is not a gender issue,” Annesley said. “Even when referees do make mistakes, they don’t make mistakes because of their gender – they make mistakes because they’re human.
“Plenty of players have towered over male referees, and attempted to exert some influence. It doesn’t only happen to female referees. It’s not a gender issue.
“In this particular case, Kasey is in [charge] of her third NRL game, she’s a rookie referee, and players will try to test rookie referees, regardless of gender. They’ll see how far they can push them.
“Referees accept they’ll be tested, but we have to know where that line in the sand is, and not overstep that mark. It can incite the fans. She’ll learn an enormous amount from that game.”
Aidan Sezer collects Josh Curran on Saturday.Credit: Nine
Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly on Badger’s behalf confirmed she had started to close her social media accounts before games, only to re-activate them 48 hours afterwards. Badger even shut down her accounts when she was officiating in the bunker.
The same sources also confirmed the level of abuse she had received was nowhere near the amount of vitriol her husband, former whistleblower Gavin Badger, had received during his time as a first-grade referee.
Badger received more than 50 direct messages over the weekend. At one stage on X, Badger was trending in the No. 1 slot for Australian sport.
The constant abuse, which around 90 per cent of the time is sexist in nature, said the confidential sources, had left Badger on more than one occasion questioning why females would want to follow her path.
Sezer has been banned for four matches for a dangerous tackle, but it was not a hip-drop, said Annesley, who added the bunker should have helped Badger by sin-binning Sezer.
Asked whether Badger would be retained in this weekend’s referee appointments, Annesley said, “None of those decisions have even been contemplated at this point”.
“I don’t think anyone should jump to conclusions about that; Kasey is a strong person,” he said.
Another contentious call over the weekend was the decision not to award New Zealand Warriors’ winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak a penalty try after he was tackled in the air by Newcastle’s Greg Marzhew while trying to score.
Annesley said the bunker needed to be comfortable Watene-Zelezniak “would have scored a try, not could have scored a try”, which is why a penalty was ruled sufficient.
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