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 (NRL).

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.

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.

Sharpe has also refereed the 2019 Women's State of Origin and has been a touch judge in several international games including the 2017 Rugby League World Cup tournament and the Tonga v Fiji test match in 2017.

On 1 September 2023, Sharpe became the first woman to referee an NRL match under the single referee system when she controlled the game between Manly Sea Eagles and West Tigers.