fullname refereeappearances refereecomp refereeyearend refereeyearstart source article_title name
phillip cooley 30 new south wales rugby league 1989 1986 -lsb- http://stats.rleague.com/rl/misc/referees.html rleague.com -rsb- phil cooley
 phil cooley
phil cooley

phillip cooley is an australian former rugby league referee .
cooley began his refereeing career in the newtown district junior rugby league .
he was subsequently graded to referee in the new south wales rugby league -lrb- nswrl -rrb- in 1982 , gaining his first first-grade match in 1986 .
cooley controlled 30 first-grade matches between 1986 and 1989 .
when others were preferred for that role , cooley reinvented himself as a touch judge .
in that capacity he made his most notable contributions to rugby league , officiating in 194 national rugby league matches -lrb- including the 1996 , 1997 and 2000 grand finals -rrb- , and eight state of origin matches .
cooley retired as an on-field official at the end of 2001 .
he then went on to the role of video referee for a further 279 first-grade matches .
cooley retired from officiating in 2012 , having achieved over 500 first-grade appointments .
in his 2003 book `` harrigan : the referee in a league of his own '' , former leading referee bill harrigan reflected that cooley had been dropped after a 1986 first grade game for several poor decisions , including incorrectly sending parramatta eels ' peter sterling to the sin bin , the only time in sterling 's career .
harrigan noted that cooley `` went on to become one of the best first grade touchies the game has ever had '' .
in 2012 harrigan , by then director of referees , had occasion to stand down cooley after he had made a bad call as a video referee .
cooley soon returned to duty and was appointed at the end of 2012 as a video referee for the grand final of the new south wales cup .
