CELEBRITY SWINGER: Golf’s important to this referee turned politician

After a career as a rugby league referee, one which saw him officiate at the highest levels, Tim Mander turned his attention to serving the community, where he is currently the Member for Everton in the Queensland State parliament. Inside golf’s Peter Owen profiles a man who since introduced to the game as a 12-year-old, has always maintained a love of golf. 

Tim Mander the politician.

THE elderly man walking along South Pine Road, in the north Brisbane suburb of Everton Park, stopped in his tracks when he spotted Tim Mander. He stared for a moment, smiled and said: “I know your face. Aren’t you that rugby league referee?”

Mander chuckles. “You’d think some of them, at least, would recognise me as Tim Mander, their local member, wouldn’t you? I’ve represented this seat in parliament for the past 11 years.”

It’s an Australian trait, however, that a person’s achievements on the sporting field transcend all others, and those who achieve sporting greatness live long in the collective memory.

And Mander’s career as a referee is worth remembering.

He was the whistle-blower in 292 NRL games between 1992 and 2005, 18 NRL finals including the 2004 and 2005 Grand Finals, four Test matches, four World Cup matches, and he was the video ref for another 187 NRL games. In 2005, Mander was named International Referee of the Year.

In that same year he was also recognised as Queensland Father of the Year, an honour that the dad-of-four treasures as much as any of the sporting accolades he’s earned. 

Mander’s career as a referee began when he was 15, but his involvement with golf began much earlier. The first dollar he ever earned was caddying at nearby Keperra golf course as a 12-year-old in 1973.

“Actually the specified fee was 95 cents, but nearly everybody rounded it up to a dollar,” Mander recalls.

Young Tim invested 40 cents of his earnings in a lesson with club pro Doug Katterns, and became hooked on a game he’s still playing a half century later.

He joined Keperra as a junior member, then had stints at Ashgrove and Wantima before rejoining Keperra. “We’d also head down to Victoria Park on a Saturday morning and line up to get a game there,” he said.

Though he enjoyed golf as a kid, his first sporting love was always rugby league, which he played at junior level until he was 17. 

Tim Mander the golfer.

“But, from a young age, I’d always wanted to be a referee,” he said. “I’ve always been an organised person with a strong sense of fair play and a passion to see that things are done properly.”

He was only 15 when he refereed his first game and, after working his way through junior leagues and officiating in the Brisbane competition for 10 years, Mander was appointed to handle his first NRL game – Newcastle against Wally Lewis’ Gold Coast Seagulls at Marathon Stadium – in April, 1992.

That was the beginning of a career that would see him control 292 NRL matches – fifth on the all-time list of NRL referee appearances – and take him to New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Europe.

After three years and nearly 60 matches, he found himself immersed in the Super League war. He sided with the breakaway Super League, signed a contract with them, and was promptly sacked by the Australian Rugby League.

Banned from officiating at matches in Australia, Mander – now a full-time professional for the first time – spent 1996 refereeing small-time fixtures in New Zealand, New Guinea and Britain, where Super League was already well established. 

In 1997 he refereed a full season of Super League fixtures in Australia, before the warring parties got together and the National Rugby League was formed in time for the 1998 season.

Mander was appointed to his first Test match – New Zealand versus France in Wellington – in 1999. Later that year he officiated at his first NRL finals match – Cronulla beating Brisbane 42-20 at Shark Park.

After handling the 2004 and 2005 Grand Finals and being named the 2005 International Referee of the Year, Mander stunned the rugby league world by retiring.

“When I was 16 or 17 my ambition was to be the best referee in the world,” he said. “So it was a great thrill to be recognised as the International Referee of the Year.

“But I’d been thinking for some time that it was time for me to try something else. In 2005 the time seemed right.”

Mander, who has a strong Christian faith and holds a Bachelor of Ministries degree, went back to his old job at Scripture Union Queensland, an organisation that provides school chaplaincy services, youth camps and training programs in youth work.

As CEO, Mander liaised with the State Government and became aware of what he described as ‘wasted money, wasted opportunities’ and ‘chronic procrastination’. Expressing his frustration to former NRL first grade referee Ben Cummins one day his friend told him: “Why don’t you have a crack at politics? You’d be a natural.”

Mander was interested. “I was passionate about trying to make a difference and thought I had the advocacy skills to suit politics,” he said.

And ahead of the 2004 NRL Grand Final.

He’d always been a Conservative voter so contacted the Queensland Liberal National Party and asked them how he could join. Three years later he became the Member for Everton in the landslide election of 2012 that saw Campbell Newman sweep to power.

Mander was initially appointed Assistant Minister for Sport and Racing and was later promoted to Minister of Housing and Public Works. After the LNP lost the 2017 state election, Mander was elected deputy leader, a role he filled for three years.

Though he says he no longer has any leadership ambitions, he’s currently Shadow Minister for Housing and Public Works, Sport and Racing, and for Olympic and Paralympic Sport and Regional Engagement.

It’s a challenging workload, but Mander still finds time for golf two or three times a fortnight, plays off a handicap of about 12, and usually fits in a brief golfing holiday each year with three or four mates he’s known since school.

His golfing highlights include attending the 1996 British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes and the 2011 US Open at Congressional Country Club in Maryland. And, during a UK holiday in 2019 he survived the ballot and played a round at St Andrews on a beautiful summer morning that delivered him two birdies. 

He says golf is the ultimate competitive game, where you compete not just against your playing partners and the course, but against yourself.

“It’s easy to gauge your progress, it rewards hard work and persistence, and can be satisfying and frustrating in equal measure,” he said. “It also develops friendships that can last a lifetime.”