NRL appoints grand final referees as Klein and 2025 incumbent miss out

Adam Gee has been appointed to referee his second NRL grand final with Chris Butler to work as the bunker official in Sunday’s Roosters-Knights decider.

Gee was in charge of the Roosters’ 36-20 preliminary final defeat of the Dolphins on Friday, in which he referred contentious tries to Jamayne Isaako and Rob Toia to the bunker, which were subsequently awarded by video official Ashley Klein, who deemed to not have sufficient evidence to overturn the on-field decision.

Gee has previously officiated the 2023 grand final between Penrith and Brisbane.

Incumbent 2025 grand final referee Grant Atkins was overlooked after he did not officiate in either preliminary final, with veteran whistleblower Gerard Sutton overseeing Newcastle’s nail-biting 22-14 defeat of the Panthers on Sunday.

Butler was in the bunker for that match.

Klein was demoted to bunker duties last weekend after failing to award an escort penalty to the Warriors in the final minute of their semi-final loss to Newcastle a week earlier at Eden Park.

Klein had overseen all three Origin matches this year.

He will be in the bunker for the first game on grand final day – the annual State championship between the NSW Cup and QLD Cup premiers – when Penrith take on the Dolphins, which will be overseen by Kieren Irons.

Tyson Brough and Phil Henderson will act as touch judges in the men’s grand final.

Belinda Sharpe will referee the Roosters-Broncos NRLW final on Sunday afternoon, with Wyatt Raymond acting as bunker review official.