RUGBY LEAGUE NETWORK RALLIES FOR MANSON

David Manson was humbled by the generosity of spirit shown by League Legends, Wally Lewis, Gene Miles and Trevor Gillmeister when they learned he was doing it a bit tough.

Manson, who controlled Test matches, State of Origins and Grand Finals, is full time carer for his disabled 50-year-old daughter, Heather and mid-way through 2024 was left shattered by a deterioration in the health of his wife, Shirley.

The man who once got between warring Origin rivals, Lewis and Mark Geyer, has never asked for help, on or off the field.

“I don’t think I have spoken to Wally or Gene since I stopped refereeing in 1997,” Manson said. “I have come across ‘Gilly’ (Gillmeister) a few times, and it’s always good to have a chat about the night he got out of his hospital bed to captain Queensland.

“Gene phoned me to ask how I was going, after Roxanne Moates (Family of League Foundation National Wellbeing Manager) told him about my situation. It made me feel humble to sit down with him and the other blokes to have a chat, at my favourite cafe (at Waterford). I used to talk to those players in the bar under the old Frank Burke Grandstand, after games at Lang Park. I would take Shirley and Heather into the bar, and everyone knew them. There was never any trouble. Players, fans and referees had a yarn together over a beer. They were different times.”

Manson controlled 10 Origin games between 1989 and 1997, including Game 3 of the 1995 series when Gillmeister discharged himself from hospital to lead the Maroons to a clean sweep of New South Wales, under the coaching of Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin. Manson was also the first referee to send a player from the field in Origin football, when he gave Queensland prop, Craig Greenhill his marching orders for a high shot on Paul Harragon at Lang Park in 1996.

The second game of the 1989 series was Manson’s Origin debut, and it has assumed legendary status because of the way Queensland hung on for a win, despite a crippling injury toll. Manson controlled two games during the 1990 series, which was won by the Blues.

Bill Harrigan had the whistle for Game 1 of the 1991 series, which Queensland won 6-4. Manson got the return game in Sydney, and what a game it proved to be.

All hell broke loose as the halftime hooter sounded, when Geyer roughed up Queensland hooker, Steve Walters, who had affectively surrendered in the tackle. Lewis saw this as a chance to fire up his men, and to perhaps get Geyer sent off, or at least sin binned. Lewis kept coming at Geyer as the rain pelted down, yelling at him ‘Hit me. Hit me. You know you want to’. Manson kept pushing them away from each other, with bewildered touch judges looking on.

The photo of Lewis and Geyer snarling at each other as Manson shouts to restore order is arguably the most famous in the history of Origin. It said it all about the theatre and drama of the annual series which was promoted as ‘Mate against Mate. State against State’.

In 1995, Manson was named as one of the referees for the Centenary World Cup in Britain. He had already controlled a Test match in New Zealand in 1990, between the Kiwis and Great Britain at Palmerston North. But he got only two games in the World Cup – Fiji v South Africa at Keighley and England v South Africa in Leeds. He was standby referee for other games, including a tense semi-final in which Australia beat New Zealand after extra time, and World Cup Referees’ boss, Greg McCallum copped a bit of flak from Australian coach, Bob Fulton at the post match function, over the performance of English referee, Russell Smith.

Manson got into refereeing almost by accident. He was playing snooker one evening in The Rugby League Club at Lang Park when a referees’ official recognised him as a player from the Wynnum-Manly Junior League.

“Each club had to have two of their own refs for the midgets, as the younger age divisions were called,” Manson told me over coffee at Little Tree Restaurant, Samford. “They asked me 51 questions about the rules of the game, and I answered 49 correctly, so they said I was right to go. At 17 I became a member of the Referees’ Association.

“I refereed Wally Lewis when he was playing under-10s for Cannon Hill, where I had played some of my football. When I graduated to the senior ranks the likes of Henry Albert, Don Lancashire, Bernie Pramberg, Ian Smith and Eddie Ward were the top referees. My brother, Doug was also a referee.”

Ward, the Brisbane Rugby League Referee of the Century, controlled the 1977, ’78, ’79, ’80, 82′ and ’83 Grand finals, with Stan Scamp a surprise appointment in 1981. It was Manson’s turn in 1984 when he was given the Wynnum-Manly v Souths’ match, which Wynnum won 42-8 against the Wayne Bennett coached Magpies. Manson was in the middle again for the 1985 Grand Final when Bennett’s Souths got revenge with a shock 10-8 win.

“You could pick an Australian team from those Wynnum and Souths teams,” Manson said. “That’s how good the Brisbane competition was in those days. (Wally Lewis and Gene Miles played for Wynnum).

Manson, a high flyer with Coles Supermarkets, faced a juggling act between work commitments; a challenging home front and his burgeoning career with the whistle.

“When I was an area supervisor with Coles, there was one day when I refereed a match at Redcliffe, and then had to drive to Moree straight after,” he said. “I was in Rockhampton when I was appointed touch judge for an Origin game at Lang Park, refereed by Barry Gomersall. I paid for my own air fares to get back in time so I could run the line.

“Work and travel meant I had a constant battle with my weight. When I finally got a position with Coles in Brisbane, my fitness improved markedly, because I didn’t have to travel. I remember one day, (television commentator) Billy J Smith said that I must have been on the skinny tablets.”

When the Broncos burst onto the scene in 1988, Manson remained in the Brisbane competition, despite its huge drop in public profile. But in 1992, after an approach to Referees’ Boss, Mick Stone, he joined the ranks of whistle blowers in what was still known as the New South Wales Rugby League.

By the time the Super League War erupted in 1995, he was an established first grade referee, and was targeted by the rebel organisation. Manson and fellow Queenslanders, Eddie Ward and Tim Mander met SL’s Referees boss, Graham Annesley at Manson’s home at Bethania, in Logan City. There was big money on the table, but ultimately Manson and Ward stayed loyal to the ARL, while Mander, now the Minister for Sport in the Queensland Government, went to SL.

“I had my family and work to think about, and early in 1995 there was no guarantee from Super League that they would have a competition in 1996,” Manson said. “If they didn’t get up and running, and I had signed with them on a big contract, I could have been sent to the UK or South Africa to referee games while they battled things out in court. I actually suggested to some of my fellow referees that we should form a Referees’ Corporation to do both competitions (if there was ARL and SL). I didn’t try to play Super League and the ARL off against one another, as Bill Harrigan said in his biography. It was a common sense business proposal.

“Loyalty means a lot to me. Coles had always been good to me, and I was the one who had asked for a chance in the NSWRL. And there was no way I could put my family under more pressure by being away for long periods. I never refereed for the money anyway.”

As an ARL loyal referee, Manson’s decisions came under intense media scrutiny whenever he controlled matches involving Super League aligned clubs, particularly the Broncos, the club seen as the chief instigator of the attempted takeover of the game.

Broncos’ coach, Wayne Bennett said after a crucial late season loss to Canterbury that he believed the club did not get the benefit of the doubt from Manson, when it came to line-ball decisions. The loss ended the Broncos’ chances of qualifying for the finals, and many Brisbane fans believed their club had been victimised.

Manson’s wife, Shirley was ‘bagged’ by a couple of other mothers while picking up their son, Matthew from school, and Matthew had been given a hard time in the playground.

“Even my poor old mum, when she went to church today, had to put up with a few comments aimed her way,” Manson confided in me when I worked for ‘The Courier-Mail’. “I can handle myself, but it does concern me when it gets personal and people attack my family.”

Manson missed out on the Grand Final appointment in 1995, with fellow Queenslander, Eddie Ward getting the nod. Instead Manson controlled the Reserve Grade Grand Final between Newcastle and Cronulla, a match the Knights won 22-10, giving the club their first senior premiership.

Manson was appointed to the First Grade Grand Final in 1996, a match in which Manly defeated St George 20-8.

In 1997 there were two competitions. Bill Harrigan controlled the Super League Grand final, which predictably was won in convincing style by the Broncos over the Sharks at Brisbane’s ANZ Stadium. There was talk of a peace deal between the ARL and SL, but the ARL needed to finish the season strongly to boost their position in negotiations.

What unfolded, with Manson in charge, was a Grand Final regarded as one of the greatest of all time, with the underdog Newcastle Knights beating reigning premiers and hot favourites, Manly for the first time that season, thanks to a last minute try to winger, Darren Albert, from a magic Andrew Johns’ blindside run, dummy and pass.

It was a match full of drama, with Manly coach, Bob Fulton approaching Manson at halftime, about what he believed to be too many high tackles by the Knights’ players. After the game, Manson confirmed he had words with Fulton at the break. “But he conducted himself like a gentleman,” Manson said.

The most unsavoury incident in the match was a second half stomp by Newcastle centre, Adam MacDougall on Manly skipper, Geoff Toovey’s face.

“Play had moved on, so I didn’t see the incident,” Manson said. “I don’t know what the touch judges were doing, because there was no report.”

Manly’s English coach, Malcolm Reilly described Manson as a “fair and honest” referee.

Manson wasn’t the fastest or fittest referee, but he could read play, something which came from playing football for many years, in the juniors with Cannon Hill, Souths Graceville and Wynnum, and then in a Brisbane business houses competition. He had great communication skills, and the players loved that they could talk to him.

“I hold rugby league footballers in the highest regard,” Manson said. “You can’t get a tougher game. I always wanted the game to flow, and my attitude was to use the rules to the greatest advantage for the non-offending side. In other words, play-on, if that is to the non-offending side’s advantage. I always used the sin bin as an absolute last resort. Vocal, home-town fans never worried me. The louder they got, the deafer I became. There were no crowd penalties from me.”

Sometimes Manson’s approach got him into trouble with officialdom, particularly in the old BRL, where he was seen as a brash youngster, who should be seen and not heard. He had many run-ins with the Brisbane management committee, and even returned his Life Membership Badge, after one dispute too many.

In 1998, after peace talks saw the birth of the NRL, Manson was appointed to control the annual pre-season Charity Shield match between South Sydney and St George, but decided he had had enough. He was needed on the home front, and because he had risen to the position of senior manager, Coles were putting him under enormous pressure to hang up the whistle. He finished with the company in 1998, after 28 years, and took on a new, more flexible role with Crazy Clark’s Variety Stores, which allowed him to help his wife, Shirley. He spent six years there, before buying into an indoor cricket centre at Beenleigh.

He became his daughter’s fulltime carer in 2010, and it has been a roller coaster ever since. Manson broke his neck in in 2012, when a truck ran a red light and cleaned up the car he was driving. There were fears he wouldn’t walk again, but he left hospital upright, with his neck in a brace.

Manson turned 70 on February, 2025, and with his wife diagnosed with dementia, he wonders what the future holds.

“We need appropriate care in place for Heather, for when we are not around,” Manson says. “Heather has been responding to music therapy and hydrotherapy, and she loves to tell people ‘I am Heather Manson’.”

Heather’s skull was crushed during childbirth, and she was not supposed to survive.

“She was baptised on the day she was born (in 1974),” Manson says. “When she turned one, doctors told us she would need fulltime care all her life. She has quadriplegia cerebral palsy, and is legally blind. I was working at Roma when I got the news about how bad things were (when she was one). I remember a little nun saying to me, ‘Do you wish your daughter dead?’. I replied there was no way. Why would I want that?

“We were told we could not have any more children, but 10 years later Matthew was born, and he has been a rock for his sister and mother. Matthew (a graphic designer) loves Heather, just as Shirley and I do.

“Shirley and I are coping, but what lies ahead, I don’t know. As her father and carer, I don’t really get any more help (from the Government) than what an aged pension provides. My knees are bad, and it is getting harder and harder to do the things that need to be done for Heather. I have been negotiating with the NDIS. We’ll see what happens. But little things like the visit from Wally, Geno and Gilly are a great boost.”

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