At 27, Henry Perenara should be in his rugby league prime. Instead, he has quit the National Rugby League to join two former players in becoming a fulltime referee.
Cronulla utility and former Kiwis player Perenara yesterday joined retired South Sydney winger Paul Mellor and former Sydney Rooster Luke Phillips in becoming the NRL's first referee cadets a program designed to turn former footballers into whistleblowers.
NRL referees' coach Robert Finch hopes the programme leads to more players wanting to become officials, Perenara hopeful it will give him a longer and better future than continuing at the Sharks.
Perenara played nine NRL games for Cronulla on a part-time contract this season and captained the premier league side, but another injury setback helped prompt his decision.
After his second shoulder reconstruction five weeks ago the former Kiwi international struggles to play with his 20-month-old son Tremayne and this change is a chance to extent his career in rugby league.
"As off yesterday I was still contracted to play with the Sharks, this is obviously a career move," said Perenara.
"It had to be a seriously big thing for me to jump ship and say I'm not going to play footy anymore and this is something I can see myself doing for 20 years.
"I've got a little young boy at the moment and trying to lift him up is getting harder and harder. That was obviously a big swaying factor in moving over to the other side.
"It's definitely a great opportunity they've given us and it's not going to be easy.
"We all want to referee first grade and I don't think we would be doing this if that wasn't our intention."
Perenara is looking forward to waking up without constant pain from football injuries, but knows his fitness is going to have to remain high if not improve to take up the whistler.
"I won't wake up feeling 50, I will probably feel like I'm 40 after refereeing a couple of games on the weekend," he said.
"It's definitely nowhere near as physical as playing first grade footy but I would be lying if I said it was going to be easy because referees have to be in really good shape."
It won't be an easy transition for the former footballers.
While Phillips has already refereed a season on the Central Coast, Mellor and Perenara will be forced to start their careers at schoolboys level.
As for breaking the ice between referee and player at the first session, Perenara is a little nervous.
"I'm sort of dreading going to training the first time, they might give me evil eyes," he joked.
