'It was unreal': Elite training experience drives Davidson

An eye-opening elite officiating training experience has Izzy Davidson more motivated than ever to take her game to the next level.

The 20-year-old from the Gold Coast was part of a group of female referees from the South East region among 40 rising female officials who travelled to Sydney to get an insight into the methods NRL and NRLW officials use to prepare their bodies and the minds for game day.

Davidson said just having access to some of the biggest names in officiating was beneficial, but was particularly blown away at the tasks designed to improve problem solving under fatigue.

"The first one we had to do 30 seconds of hard work on either a bike or a rowing machine and after the 30 seconds they'd give us a sheet of paper with 10 questions about rules of the game and we'd have 30 seconds to look at it and answer them," Davidson said.

"And after that 30 seconds was up, we'd have to put the sheet of paper down and then do another hard 30 seconds of bike riding or rowing or whatever the exercise was we chose.

"Then 30 seconds after that we got to look at the papers again and keep working through it, and we did that for 10 minutes... and it was actually quite difficult when you're fatigued.

"The second one we had to do different weight exercises, like medicine ball throws, and we'd do planks, squats, sit ups and then once we'd gone through a whole circuit of that, we'd have to run to a laptop and watch three clips and we only got to watch them once and we'd have to make a decision straight away after we'd done the exercise."

Davidson said you could liken it to a line break being made, requiring a sprint from the referee to keep up with the play before to allow the best opportunity for further decision-making.

The Gold Coast Referees' Association member has been a regular on the touch line in Hastings Deering Colts this year and earned an opportunity to referee an Auswide Bank Mal Meninga Cup after experience in the middle during the Cyril Connell Challenge.

Davidson, who also controlled the Under 17 Girls City versus Country match in 2022, said simply being able to meet and pick the brains of NRL officials after training was "unreal" and gave her plenty of tips to use and share within her local association, adding to support she has received coming through the grades.

"Getting to meet all the NRL guys and just learn how they train and get to be in their environment was a really good experience for the younger girls and even for older girls like me and Tori (Wilkie) and even Rochelle (Tamarua)," she said.

"It also put us into a good environment to see you can actually get there if you want to, which I thought was really cool.

"I've just seen an exponential increase in my performances because of all the senior members from the QRL and the NRL who've just been talking me through everything and just making me a better ref."

Such experiences, the inspiration of seeing the likes of Belinda Sharpe reach the NRL and watching on from the sideline of an NRLW match, has turned what Davidson started as an activity for stress relief into career goals.

"Now I just have this drive like, I want to do a Hostplus Cup line and I want to poke my nose through and hopefully get into the NRLW in the next couple of years," she said.

Main image: Izzy Davidson answering the rules quiz on the exercise bike. Photo: NRL