Jarrod Cole will make his National Rugby League debut as a referee this weekend when he officiates the Round 24 match between the North Queensland Cowboys and Newcastle Knights.<\/p>\n
As a highly-regarded member of the QRL\u2019s High Performance Unit, Cole\u2019s appointment has been met with excitement and admiration by those who have supported his journey.<\/p>\n
State match officials manager Clayton Sharpe praised Cole\u2019s resilience and dedication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot to admire about Jarrod and the way he goes about his work, both on and off the field,\u201d Sharpe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy continually meeting high standards, he\u2019s become the best match official he can be over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole\u2019s NRL appointment is also a testament to the evolution of the High Performance Unit and the opportunities available for referees, players, coaches and administrators within the QRL statewide competitions pathway.<\/p>\n
Having refereed two of the past three Hostplus Cup grand finals, the Queensland-based match official is thriving on the field, with his home life and work as a physiotherapist providing a content Cole with the perfect balance.<\/p>\n
Cole makes his NRL debut at the top of his game, having now refereed 166 Hostplus Cup matches since making his Cup debut in 2014.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old has also been an assistant Cup referee in 18 matches and has done 63 lines as a touch judge.<\/p>\n
Cole drew high praise for his outstanding performance in the 2024 grand final between the Norths Devils and Redcliffe Dolphins.<\/p>\n
That performance came as no surprise to QRL officiating high performance manager Andrew Wareham, who described Cole as \u201cyour ultimate professional\u201d in the lead up to last year\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a giant sponge, he absorbs information, he leads from the front,\u201d Wareham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a natural born leader, people flock to him through his actions and his words … how he prepares, mentally and physically, for a game is a cornerstone to our group and testament to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jarrod Cole
Career highlights<\/p>\n
2016\u00a0\u2013 Hostplus Cup Grand Final Assistant Referee<\/p>\n
2018\u00a0\u2013 Hostplus Cup Grand Final Touch Judge<\/p>\n
2019\u00a0\u2013 Hostplus Cup Grand Final Touch Judge<\/p>\n
2022 \u2013 Hostplus Cup Grand Final Referee<\/p>\n
2024 \u2013 Hostplus Cup Grand Final Referee<\/p>\n
2025 \u2013 Debut NRL Referee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jarrod Cole will make his National Rugby League debut as a referee this weekend when he officiates the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,54431,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-68747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dedicated-cole-earns-nrl-honours","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68747","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=68747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}