# Belinda Sharpe

belinda sharpe née Sleeman is an Australian rugby league referee and former journalist, and is the first woman to referee a first-grade match in the National Rugby League.Sharpe was born and grew up in Rockhampton, Queensland, where she worked as a sports reporter at The Morning Bulletin. She took up officiating in rugby league when she was 18. The first match Sharpe ever refereed was an under-8's fixture at Gracemere.After officiating at various levels of rugby league in Queensland, Sharpe became the first women to be an official at an NRL game when she was one of the touch judges for the match between Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks in the last round of the 2014 NRL season.At the start of the 2019 season Sharpe was one of two women, the other being Kasey Badger, to be given full-time referee contracts by the NRL. She took charge of her first match involving an NRL team when she was one of the two match referees in Brisbane Broncos' pre-season game against Wynnum Manly.