While Gillett doesn’t rhyme with Gillette, we still reckon the clean-shaven Australian needs his own reality television show, or at least a microphone for every single one of his Championship games next season, after this incredible experiment in the Hyundai A-League.
The 32-year-old recently officiated his last A-League match, taking centre stage quite literally for Western Sydney’s 4-1 win over Brisbane Roar in the Suncorp Stadium (disregard what the blurb for the clip in the tweet itself says — WSW are doing bad enough in the league at the moment without BT crediting their victories to a team literally named Melbourne Victory).
Despite the scoreline, it was Gillett who shone brightest as he agreed to wear a microphone for the duration of his swansong fixture, meaning every word which crossed his lips was broadcast for public consumption.
It makes for interesting listening, but be warned: while Gillett’s accent is bearable, the lino sounds like he’s inhaled a helium balloon.
Get all your Championship punts at paddypower.comThis is fascinating…
A-League ref Jarred Gillett had a live microphone for the entirety of his final game before leaving for the Championship 🎤
• Every decision explained
• Every chat with a player heardWould you like to see something like this in the Premier League? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/1edNBwLHy8
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 19, 2019
An affable character, Gillett is a popular figure in Australian football having been a referee in the top tier since 2010. In that time, he has overseen five A-League Grand Finals and won the A-League Referee of the Year award on five occasions, making him the most successful official in the competition’s history.
While these are some impressive accolades, they aren’t even the most remarkable thing about the man (and no, we’re not referring to the fact that he recorded his 4,600th foul during the Roar-WSW game either).
While he was achieving all this on-field success, Gillett was studying for a PhD in Biomechanics off the pitch, graduated from The University of Queensland in December 2018. Now, the only thing luring him away from the prestigious A-League is a position as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in children with Cerebral Palsy at John Moore’s University in Liverpool.
This move means the Championship will benefit from Gillett’s skills as he gets set to join the competition’s refereeing roster for 2019/20.
In light of this successful experiment, we reckon all refs need to be kitted out with microphones for their games. Imagine hearing what Mike Dean said that time he was p*ssed off at a Swansea City attack breaking down when he gave them an advantage against Manchester United?
Imagine Mike Dean with a microphone in general? We’d have to call him Mic Dean. We can dream.
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