Luke Phillips (born 4 August 1975) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football match official and former player. He started refereeing

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 ...

Premiership matches in 2010, having played seven seasons in the 1990s and 2000s as a goal-kicking for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

(with whom he won the

2002 NRL Premiership The 2002 NRL season was the 95th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fifth to be run by the National Rugby League. The season was affected by the competition-leading Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs' salary cap breach fi ...

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

and

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

Playing career

After playing for West

Belconnen The District of Belconnen () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), used in land administration. The district is subdivided into 27 divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks. The district of Belconne ...

Warriors as a junior, Phillips made his first-grade debut for the

in the

1996 ARL season The 1996 ARL premiership (also known as the 1996 Optus Cup due to sponsorship from Optus) was the 89th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be administered by the Australian Rugby League (ARL). Twenty team ...

against the

Western Reds The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition ...

at the WACA Ground. He played for the

during the 1997 Super League season. He spent his third year in the top grade at a third club after moving to the

Manly Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

for in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. The following year he moved to the

where he would remain for the rest of his career. His performance for the club at fullback in their 2000 NRL Grand Final loss to the

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 ...

drew glowing praise. The Roosters made the

2002 NRL Grand Final The 2002 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2002 NRL season. It took place on Sunday, 6 October 2002, at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. 80,130 people saw the Sydney Roosters beat the New Zealand Warriors 30–8. T ...

and Phillips played at fullback in the winning side with a shoulder injury that was later operated on in the off-season. Phillips' form at the back saw Roosters coach

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. He ...

keep

Brett Mullins Brett Mullins (born 21 January 1972) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, and early 2000s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative back, he played his club ...

on the wing (Mullins is a former teammate of both Stuart and Phillips at the Raiders in 1996 and was also the first choice fullback for the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

test team (alongside Stuart who was the test ) on the

1994 Kangaroo tour The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) played a number of matches against British and Fre ...

). However he retired during the first half of the

2003 NRL season The 2003 NRL premiership was the 96th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the sixth run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen teams competed, with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles returning in place of their failed joint ...

after failing to recover.

Refereeing career

At a Sydney Roosters function sometime after his retirement, Luke Phillips was still trying to decide what to in life after football. It was there that former Grand Final and

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

winning coach Phil Gould said to him "Why don't you have a go at refereeing? The NRL is looking for players who want to pick up a whistle". Phillips, looking for a way to stay involved in the game, decided to give it a go, though he initially believed he wouldn't enjoy it. After starting out in the Central Coast Division in 2007, Phillips was given a cadetship with the NRL in 2008 (alongside other former first grade players

Henry Perenara Henry Edward Perenara (born 16 June 1980) is a New Zealand rugby league referee and former professional footballer who represented New Zealand. He played as a , though he could also play in the . He is also the first NRL referee in history to s ...

and

Paul Mellor Paul Mellor (born 21 August 1974 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for four different Sydney NRL clubs and in Britain before retiring at the en ...

). He then started officiating in the Under-20s National Youth Competition (NYC) in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. His first appearance in the NRL was as a touch judge in Round 26 of the

2009 NRL season The 2009 NRL season was the 102nd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the twelfth run by the National Rugby League. For the third consecutive year, sixteen teams competed for the 2009 Telstra Premiership ...

NRL

After spending most of 2010 refereeing in the

NSW Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

(reserve grade), Luke Phillips made his first grade debut as a referee on 21 August for a Round 24 match of the

2010 NRL season The 2010 NRL season was the 103rd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the thirteenth run by the National Rugby League. The season commenced on 12 March and ended with the Grand Final, played on 3 Octobe ...

AAMI Park The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, known as AAMI Park for sponsorship reasons, is an outdoor sports stadium on the site of Edwin Flack Field in the Sports and Entertainment Precinct in the Melbourne central business district. When completed ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

as the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

defeated

Cronulla Cronulla is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Boasting numerous surf beaches and swimming spots, the suburb attracts both tourists and Greater Sydney residents. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney ...

24–4. He then made a further three appearances in the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The NRL ...

while mostly officiating in the 2011 NSW Cup. He spent all of

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

refereeing in the NSW Cup, though he has since become a regular first grade referee in the

2013 NRL season The 2013 NRL season was the 106th season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia. The National Rugby League's main competition, named the 2013 Telstra Premiership after major sponsors Telstra Corporation, was contested by sixte ...

. Although he was yet to make his NRL debut as a referee at the time, Phillips was selected alongside

Ashley Klein Ashley Klein is an Australian rugby league referee. Klein refereed in England, beginning in the Rugby League Conference. His first professional game was Workington Town v Featherstone Rovers on 8 September 2002. His first Super League game ...

Shayne Hayne Kevin John "Shayne" Hayne (born 31 October 1967 in Wellington, New South Wales,) is an Australian former rugby league referee. He officiated in the National Rugby League, City vs Country Origin, State of Origin series, All Stars Matches, the ...

and Gavin Badger to referee the inaugural NRL All Stars game at

Skilled Park A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...

on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Phillips juggles his time as a full-time NRL referee with running his own

Pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

and

Video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

supply business.Ex-Grand Final Hero now a Referee
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Luke 1975 births Living people Australian rugby league players Australian rugby league referees Canberra Raiders players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players National Rugby League referees North Queensland Cowboys players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Canberra Sydney Roosters players