The senior referee in each game this season will have a soccer-style armband to signify he is the man in charge, but the days of NRL match officials wearing pink jerseys have gone as it is believed the uniform made it more difficult for the officials to be taken seriously.
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In a bid to make referees more accountable, one will be appointed as the leader of the team officiating at a match and he will wear an armband to make him easily identifiable.
Fairfax Media was told that some NRL officials believed the authority of a referee could be undermined if he was wearing a pink jersey.
Instead the uniforms worn by referees this season will be blue or red - colours that the National Centre for Australian Studies lecturer Dr Tom Heenan said were more likely to encourage discipline.
"One of the arguments about this is that a stronger colour denotes a more disciplined culture so therefore a navy blue would promote more discipline than a pink," Heenan said.
Performance psychologist Chris Pomfret, of Condor Performance, said there was no evidence the colour of a referee's uniform made any difference to how he was perceived but scrapping the pink jersey would ensure people noticed that the NRL was making changes to help match officials in their jobs.
"As I understand it, the NRL spends a lot of time and energy on improving the performance of their officials as of course do the referees themselves," Pomfret said.
"The general public either don't recognise this, don't acknowledge it, or don't give it much thought and so they won't be aware of most changes which take place from year to year, or during the course of a season. As such, a change in colour can be a symbolic gesture which is easily recognised and suggests change in general, presumably change for the better."
However, Pomfret said that scrapping the pink jersey also suggested the NRL was too concerned about what coaches and supporters thought of referees.
"The colour of a uniform is irrelevant to the skill execution of referees, just the same as the colour of a jersey worn by players is irrelevant to their skill execution," he said. "In short, the colour of a uniform shouldn't matter as it doesn't directly impact on the performance of a referee, which ultimately has the most influence on their perceived credibility."
To help the performance of match officials this season, NRL referees boss Tony Archer said that one whistleblower would control the majority of each match and he would wear a pink or blue armband.
"There is a team leader appointed each week, who will referee a minimum of 80 per cent of the game," Archer said. "He will be the controlling referee, he may be positioned on the ruck at different stages if the game requires him to be on the ruck and if the game requires him to be on the 10 metre position, he will be on that position.
"The lead referee will have an armband similar to a soccer captain and that is how he will be recognised as the leader. Externally some people didn't know who the lead referee was last year but he will be recognised publicly and some clubs didn't even realise who it was at certain games. We need to understand that and sell that."
Former Australian cricket coach John Buchanan has been working with Archer in developing a leadership program for the referees while league great Bob Fulton has also played an active role in devising pathways to produce more NRL referees and the trialling of extra match officials on the sideline and in the in-goal area.
