Belinda Sharpe née Sleeman is an Australian rugby league referee and former journalist, and is the first woman to referee a first-grade match in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. Sharpe was born and grew up in

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

, where she worked as a sports reporter at ''

The Morning Bulletin ''The Morning Bulletin'' is an online newspaper servicing the city of Rockhampton and the surrounding areas of Central Queensland, Australia. From 1861 to 2020, ''The Morning Bulletin'' was published as a print edition, before then becoming an ...

''. She took up officiating in rugby league when she was 18. The first match Sharpe ever refereed was an under-8's fixture at Gracemere. After officiating at various levels of rugby league in Queensland, Sharpe became the first women to be an official at an NRL game when she was one of the

touch judges A touch judge is an official who monitors the touch-line in a game of rugby union or rugby league and raises a flag if the ball (or player carrying it) goes into touch. Touch judges also stand behind the posts to confirm that a goal has been scored ...

for the match between

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

and

Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the last round of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

. At the start of the 2019 season Sharpe was one of two women, the other being Kasey Badger, to be given full-time referee contracts by the NRL. She took charge of her first match involving an NRL team when she was one of the two match referees in

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

' pre-season game against Wynnum Manly. In her 100th match as an NRL official Sharpe became the first woman to referee a full NRL match in the round 18 game between Brisbane Broncos and

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

on 18 July 2019 at

Suncorp Stadium Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

alongside

Ben Cummins Ben Cummins is an Australian rugby league referee for the National Rugby League. He has refereed since 2006. Background Cummins was born in Cairns, Queensland. He moved to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, when he was four years of age. ...

. Sharpe has also refereed the 2019 Women's State of Origin and has been a touch judge in several international games including the

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

tournament and the Tonga v Fiji test match in 2017. In 2022, Sharpe was appointed as the main referee for the Women's Rugby League World Cup Final between New Zealand and Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Belinda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Rockhampton Australian rugby league referees National Rugby League referees Rugby League World Cup referees Australian sports journalists Women sports journalists Australian women referees and umpires