ROBERT MOREY
EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGIST
EXERCISE SCIENTIST
PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENT
RUGBY LEAGUE REFEREE
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Robert Morey is the Director of Morey Health, a health care centre who provides evidence-based health care.
In addition to running Morey Health, Robert also studies Physiotherapy at Macquarie University, teaches Exercise Physiology at UNSW and Referees Rugby League.
Robert is a regular Blood Donor for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.
My Story
After a few broken bones as a teenager playing Rugby League and fantastic experiences doing my rehab, I decided I wanted to become a Physiotherapist. I also thought I might try my hand in refereeing the game.
I did my research into what courses I needed to do during high school to get into the course at university. I modified my pathway accordingly and did enough to get into a similar course called Exercise Physiology at UNSW. At the same time, I was training year round and moving my way up the referee ranks.
I finished my Bachelor of Exercise Physiology with Distinction qualifying me as an ESSA Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Accredited Exercise Scientist. While doing my undergraduate degree, I sat through my group and personal training certificate at TAFE NSW, and that qualified me with a level 1 strength and conditioning coach accreditation with ASCA. I also made it into the NSW Rugby League junior representative referee squad. I referee in the Harold Matthews and SG Ball competitions, which puts our squad as semi-elite athletes.
I then chose to continue to pursue my ambition to become a physiotherapist and add to my skill set in the health care industry. I looked for who was providing the best Physiotherapy education in Sydney and selected Macquarie University to study an extended masters program called a Doctor of Physiotherapy. I am currently studying and well on my way to becoming a fully qualified Physiotherapist. I used everything I leaarnt along my way to inform how I approach my training and prepartion as a Rugby League referee.
Early Life
I started playing Rugby League at the age of 5 when my best mate from Kindergarten asked me to come along. His dad was the coach and I had no idea what Rugby League was because my parents immigrated from New Zealand before I was born and raised me to watch Rugby Union and support the All Blacks. When I wasn't playing footy you could see me helping out around my clubs field helping out or running ball boys up and down the sidelines on the older boys games trying to outrun the touch judges.
Fast forward to 2008, when I was 12 and was forced to play up an age group because the coach (no longer my mate's dad but the club president) cut me from the team so he could bring in a whole lot of new players into the team. I started training in division divison above me second side and things were going well until a week out from the first trial match in one on one defence practice one of my new teammates ran full pelt at me and I got thrown into the air and broke my arm on impact. This is when I first encountered a Physiotherapist. I was in a cast for 6 weeks and then completed my rehab program and came back and played 4 games (4 really good games, if I do say so myself - I guess I was just over keen to play again). Then in the fourth match, it had been raining all day and the field was a slosh pit in the last 5 minutes of the match I was defending the goal line and had reefed a forward on top of me, one of my second rowers jumped on top. My foot got caught underneath and broke. I was then out until the last 3 rounds and I just wasn't as confident in my playing ability after that.
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Teenage Years
The following year I took up refereeing because my brother was doing it at the time and making some pocket money. I thought I could do a better job. So that year, 2010, I played and refereed. At the end of that year, I had come to the conclusion that I could make it further as a referee than as a player and I was enjoying it more.
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The fact that I sprained my other wrist and rolled my other ankle playing that year might have also had something to do with it as well. I spent the next 10 years refereeing with Parramatta Referees. Here I learnt from the age of 14 how to manage a football game and how to get the best out of people. The skills I’ve learnt refereeing saw me mature faster than most of my peers. I was receiving ongoing training and experience with people management, including my own; controlling my emotions and keeping players ego’s in check. I was learning how to communicate effectively with adults and how to apply an objective view on a subjective situation. It built my confidence in backing my own decisions; and humility in realising that I would learn my biggest lessons, make my biggest improvements, off the back of owning my mistakes. I developed my discipline. Fully dedicating myself to the fitness and skills training, trying to develop my craft and optimise my performance. Then I did this the opportunities that I was gifted. One early on that really solidified me on my journey was, being able to go into the NRL referees’ offices and spend a day with them, seeing what it’s like to be in their shoes. Bill Harrigan offered me that opportunity as Head Coach, and it showed me how hard they work but inspired me to try and get there.
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Through my high school years, I was hanging out with the smarter kids in the grade, trying to associate myself with them. At the same time, I was signing up to be a part of almost every sporting team I could (except soccer and cricket). Apart from enjoying sport, it was a great excuse to get out of class from time to time and change things up. This saw me competing at NSW state level for swimming, athletics, cross-country and triathlons. I also put my hand up to be in the various student leadership teams, I just liked helping out and had a great sense of pride in doing it. It also meant more time out of class. Don’t get me wrong, I liked school. Being made to hang out with your mates is incredible. But it was nice to have some variety. So I guess you could class me as a sporty nerd. Which was very fitting for someone who became a health professional.
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Through all the rehab I needed to do from my footy injuries, I had developed a keen interest in how the body worked, sport science and physiotherapy. When I was 15 I was fortunate to spend a week of work experience at my physio and thought that I could do this job, I like it. I then set my final year subjects in high school towards it and getting into the physio degree at UNI. I missed out and ended up in the Bachelor of Exercise Physiology at UNSW.
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Early Adulthood
A blessing in disguise. I learnt all about the underlying anatomy and physiology, along with high technical exercise science and exercise physiology skills. Essentially being trained to be a lifestyle behaviour change expert. I did get experience on many sites with all types of patients. I was very fortunate to conduct research while completing my undergraduate degree. This was done in a team working on High-intensity interval training for overweight or obese males and have that series of papers published. However, at the end of my undergraduate degree, I still wanted to do physiotherapy. I didn’t have to, I definitely had enough skills to keep me busy, but I wanted to. I have this idea that I want to have those hands-on skills with acute management and be able to follow patients through to long term management.
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I applied for the three postgraduate physiotherapy courses in Sydney. I received offers from all three and chose to study at Macquarie University for their unique three year Doctor of Physiotherapy program. It had the best reputation for providing the best quality physiotherapy education and producing the best practitioners straight out of uni. I am delighted with the program. It’s complimented my Exercise Physiology undergraduate exceptionally well and has expanded my skill set. It has consequently expanded my knowledge base as well, where I feel confident managing such a wide variety of different conditions.
As I was studying, I kept developing as a Rugby League referee. I got into the NSW Rugby League junior reps squad doing under 16’s, and 18’s junior NRL club footy in the summer and then went back to refereeing local footy in Parramatta in the winter. It became a year-round thing. The training ramped up, and I was putting what I had been learning at uni into optimising my performance as a referee. To be fitter, faster and make better decisions under fatigue. My fitness is what I prided myself on.
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After completing my first degree, I was worried about starting work in the health industry; building a client base, only to have to walk away from them when my physio course started. So I kept doing more security work as a casual and refereed as much as possible to make it through. I also started teaching back in the undergraduate program at UNSW and loved it. So I was doing security, refereeing rugby league, refereeing and playing Oztag, teaching and trying to rep myself for uni 2.0. I had a lot of time to reflect and put myself in a good place, with good habits going forward. I was beginning to practice mindfulness and sort out mentors for myself.
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In 2018, I put my hand up for many extra games of footy trying to show that I really wanted it, that I wanted to progress. I ended up doing an indigenous juniors training camp, female state schools final and the Tertiary Cup Grand Final. The next year in junior reps I was in the top group of refs which earned me an invitation to the accelerated learning group, where you trial training and running lines with the next squad up, The NSWRL High-Performance Squad. This is the group of referees who are one level below the NRL. I went through an additional educational program with the NRL education team called the Talented Match Officials Development Academy run by former first-grade officials, Alan Shortall and Sean Villa. I was a Touch Judge on the NSWRL Harvey Norman Women’s Grand Final in 2019. I got invited to the Australian Schoolboys Competition under 18’s in 2019. I got the top rank for Parramatta Referees and referee’s referee in 2019. The next season for Junior reps, I ran a few trials before getting an invitation to start training with the NSW High-Performance Squad. I kept training my butt off and got told a month or so later that I was in the squad.
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The physio course began, and I felt right back at home. One year in and I saw an opportunity to work as a casual Exercise Physiologist with Mia Jay. Mia is an Exercise Physiologist and Master of Public Health that does everything, based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney running her mobile clinic, Mia’s Health. She taught me a lot and exposed me to a greater variety of clients. Soon after, I also began a casual role down in Wollongong for Rehwork, IOH. I was working alongside Exercise Physiologists Adrian Ram and Dr John Booth. There was a big focus on working with people with chronic pain, primarily with WorkCover. Then during the COVID-19 lockdown (in early-mid 2020) a lot of this work went quiet. However, I was still fortunate enough to start a role with Veritas Executive Health, running high-end health assessments with VO2max testing and DEXA scans.