{"id":435648,"date":"2026-01-25T02:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435648\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T02:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:25:11","slug":"honoured-for-lifetime-of-service-to-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435648\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoured for lifetime of service to rugby league"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"East Auckland resident Gary Whittle holds a treasured photo showing some of the greatest Kiwi players he\u2019s known, including legends Mark Graham and Ron Ackland. Times photos<\/p>\n

One of the longest-serving and most dedicated stalwarts of rugby league in New Zealand has been recognised for his unwavering commitment to the sport.<\/p>\n

Burswood local Gary Whittle has been appointed a\u00a0Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM)\u00a0in the 2026 New Year Honours List for services to rugby league.<\/p>\n

The Honour citation states Whittle has been involved with league for more than 65 years as a referee, touch judge, ground announcer, timekeeper and administrator in Auckland, Waikato, and Northland.<\/p>\n

In 1995 he was appointed timekeeper for One New Zealand Warriors games in New Zealand, initially beginning as a volunteer, and has since served as timekeeper for more than 500 games.<\/p>\n

Whittle has volunteered in a range of other roles to ensure numerous rugby league events could be staged, and to help maintain the sport\u2019s high standards and reputation.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been a member of the Auckland Rugby League Judicial Committee since 1981 and is serving his second term as chair, and he\u2019s served on committees for the Auckland Rugby League Referees Association, including the annual Gold Medal Awards for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

Whittle was the ground announcer at Carlaw Park for Auckland Rugby League for 15 years, has been a director of the Rugby League Museum Society since 2009, and chaired Auckland Police Rugby League from 1985 to 1992.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a Life Member of the Auckland Rugby League Referees Association and of Auckland Rugby League since 2008 and was recognised with a Distinguished Service Award from New Zealand Rugby League in 2000.<\/p>\n

The Times\u00a0recently spoke to Whittle about his life in rugby league and asked him how he got involved with the sport.<\/p>\n

Whittle, who\u2019s had a career as a police officer, grew up in the Auckland suburb of Parnell and first became involved with the storied Marist club as a youngster. He began playing the sport in 1953.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved to Whitianga and came back [to Auckland] in 1959,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cI rejoined and kept playing for Marist. The next year I played one more year, but I was very small.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mate I played with said, \u2018the referees are having a meeting tonight, why don\u2019t you go down?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Gary Whittle says the thing that\u2019s kept him heavily involved in rugby league over the years is the great people he\u2019s worked alongside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were at Carlaw Park and that was 1960. So I went down there and joined the referees in 1960.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refereed in Auckland until the end of 1967. Then I transferred to Kawakawa [in Northland, in his police role] from January, 1968, to September, 1973, and refereed rugby league up there, which was beneficial for two things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to know the locals, and it was a pretty tough town back in those days, but because I refereed league, I knew the league guys and the rugby guys, and it was a breeze to police.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then transferred in 1973 to Hamilton and refereed one year in Waikato. Then I got ill in 1975 and couldn\u2019t really referee, but still kept in touch with the referees in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1976 I got promoted [in the police]. I came back to Auckland and rejoined the referees immediately, and I\u2019ve been involved with them ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as to why Whittle has stayed so heavily involved in the sport all these years, he says it comes down to people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the people I meet, and I love the game itself. But it\u2019s the people who do it all by far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people I\u2019ve worked with at Auckland Rugby League, with the referees, on the [Rugby League] Museum Society. It\u2019s all the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have a common interest. We all love the game and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only me. There\u2019s hundreds of people out there who do the same type of thing that I do. We\u2019re all volunteers that keep the clubs going.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly enough, in Auckland if you didn\u2019t have women on the committees, the majority of rugby league clubs in Auckland would fold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are the glue that stick it all together. They get things done, they make sure there\u2019s food, that everything is run properly, that kids are looked after.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s a community game, and that\u2019s where I come from. I\u2019ve just had a really good ride over the years, especially since I joined the ground staff at Carlaw Park.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Auckland resident Gary Whittle holds a treasured photo showing some of the greatest Kiwi players he\u2019s known,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,227501,63,227502,62522,227503,227504,227505,227506,760,227507,85],"class_list":["post-435648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-auckland-rugby-league","tag-australia","tag-gary-whittle","tag-mark-graham","tag-member-of-the-new-zealand-order-of-merit","tag-new-year-honours-list","tag-one-new-zealand-warriors","tag-ron-ackland","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league-museum-society","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}