Referee Ashley Klein must stand down from Wednesday night’s second State of Origin match, now that the NRL has refused to sack him from the code’s showpiece game, despite his gambling problems escalating significantly under the watch of the current administration.
Rugby league is on the eve of signing the richest broadcasting deal in Australian sport at a time when the credibility of the code is under siege after this masthead revealed the NRL’s top referee had a $400,000 gambling problem. Yet, Klein has been appointed to officiate a game watched by 4 million viewers, where one wrong call could decide the result.
Wednesday night’s game at the MCG will be Klein’s 14th Origin in a row, and the middle match in the annual three-game series.
The past two series have turned in the second match in controversial circumstances. In 2024, after Klein justifiably sent off NSW’s Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in Sydney, the Blues enjoyed a rush of repeat sets in the second match at the MCG, setting up a decider in Brisbane.
Last year, after NSW comfortably won the opening match in Brisbane, Queensland received a flood of first-half penalties in Perth, setting up a decider in Sydney.
This was at a time Rugby League Central was running an in-house campaign to attract four million TV viewers and a capacity crowd to the decider at Accor Stadium, consistent with its aim of landing a rich TV deal.
This masthead is not suggesting Klein or any employee of the NRL has acted improperly, and it must be assumed they would be above being swept up, even subconsciously, in such a crusade.
Furthermore, the 2019 investigation into Klein’s gambling discovered that he made no bets on rugby league, and when his problem was again reported to the NRL in 2023 for betting on horse racing and greyhounds, he registered with BetStop, the national self-exclusion regulator.
However, this masthead’s revelation will expose Klein to intense scrutiny, especially with NSW having won the first game of this year’s series after he sent off Queensland’s Kalyn Ponga for a shoulder charge on NSW’s Tolutau Koula – again justifiably. The pressure will build, particularly if the Maroons square the series and again set up a decider.
Magnifying the problem is the NRL’s decision to expand the territory in which repeat sets can be awarded in 2026.
If Klein takes the field in Melbourne, the centreman, as a referee is sometimes called, will be the glaring centre of attention.
The punishment for breaches occurs on the run, and there is no audit or explanation, which frustrates players and coaches. With six agains now being awarded across almost the entire field, referees have never enjoyed more power.
Referee inconsistency has become an increasing source of discomfort to many past and present players and coaches, with many pointing to decisions favouring the code’s glamour player, Reece Walsh, through last year’s finals series.
Klein is therefore in an untenable position. Neither NSW nor Queensland were happy with his recent performances, with Brisbane’s Courier Mail newspaper naming him “man of the match” in Origin I after he sent off Ponga, and NSWRL officials protesting the lopsided penalty count after last year’s match in Perth.
If Klein takes the field in Melbourne, the centreman, as a referee is sometimes called, will be the glaring centre of attention.
Each decision will be scrutinised, on Wednesday night and microscopically by coaches and media afterwards.
It is the first integrity crisis involving a referee since 1978 when I coached the Western Suburbs Magpies and leading coaches, such as Jack Gibson, protested against the refereeing of Greg Hartley, who was suddenly elevated on the eve of the semi-finals from reserve grade to officiate the top fixtures.
Confidence in the game suffered until NSWRL general manager John Quayle called a public forum for all stakeholders.
NSWRL chairman Kevin Humphreys subsequently resigned following a Four Corners investigation that revealed significant gambling debts.
The game took no money from the gambling industry then, although illegal betting was rife.
Now, the NRL collects $50 million in product fees from bookmakers, plus has a $15 million sponsorship with Sportsbet, while four NRL clubs have similar commercial relationships with online operators.
A significant proportion of that revenue is expected to be invested to protect the integrity of the sport, such as equipping the code with resources to monitor gambling by officials and players, as well as the education of all stakeholders about its dangers.
It is astonishing that the NRL allowed Klein’s betting to escalate after 2019, when his bets were revealed to be modest, yet material.
Guardrails imposed by the NRL that year gave it access to all his betting activities, yet his punting escalated to $400,000 by 2023.
Klein has been a guest of Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club at racecourses as a plus one of his partner, who was until recently an adviser to NSW Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris.
So, rather than a $400,000 headache, the NRL now has a $4 billion one as it closes in on a rich broadcasting deal, with the headlines after Wednesday night’s game to be all about Klein.
Roy Masters is a Sports Columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.