Teachers, students. Hotel staff, hotel patrons. Facebook users. Spectators. Players, and not least referees.

In 2003, I was subjected to physical threats while refereeing a junior rugby league game in Parramatta - I was 16. 

The player? He was just 14. And myself and my touch judges spent the better part of an hour in the canteen after the semi-final finished as we waited for the crowd to die down.

Frightening stuff.

In 2005, I was on the field as an 18-year-old in-goal touch judge for the Group 10 grand final between Lithgow and Bathurst Panthers when a spectator entered the field of play and attacked a touch judge.

That wasn’t fun either.

In 2008, I was punched by a player at a pub after refereeing a first grade game in Bathurst.

Didn’t enjoy that.

And so here we are, 2015, after Cronulla Sharks brothers David and Andrew Fifita allegedly threatened to “smash” a referee at a junior game of football in Penrith, and abuse towards match officials is the talking point on the end of everyone’s schooner glass.

I want to make this point - at the end of any of the three aforementioned scenarios, I contemplated kicking in the can. Who wouldn’t?

But as a young person participating in a great sport, I thought why let the actions of a few ruin something I loved doing?

And that’s my advice to any young official who is the unfortunate subject of any form of abuse this weekend, next weekend or on a weekend in two years’ time.

Don’t give up.

The hecklers are harmless, often hilarious, and, at the end of the day, the good far outweighs any of the bad experiences you’ll encounter as a official in your chosen sport.

So, as hard as the odd Fifita brother moment may be, don’t give up. 

Trust me, after 15 years of refereeing the greatest game of all, it’s well worth the persistence.