On Tuesday, Sutton was named to officiate his sixth NRL grand final and his fourth in succession - although Sunday's game will be his first decider as a solo referee.

In a season unlike no other, Sutton spoke of the resilience of the game's officials to not only live in a bubble, but to learn new rules and adapt to the scrapping of two referees.

Referees were given just two weeks to prepare for the 'six again' rule, captain's challenge and the reduction of officials before the season restarted on May 28.

Unable to join NRL club training as usual for scrimmages, the referees made do with each other.

"We only had two weeks prior to resuming to get our heads around the rule changes and how that was going to work," he said on Tuesday.

"In that time we couldn't go out to clubs and attend their training and scrimmages to get real game-like practice so we had 30 referees out here [at ANZ Stadium] trying to do their best impersonations of first grade footballers, which wasn't pretty.

"But that was as good as we could do to simulate going into restarting the season.

"It was a challenge but the way everyone approached that was - we're just grateful to be going back in and having football to referee and making the best of it."

The scramble to prepare has paid off, and Sutton says the 'six again' rule has alleviated pressure on referees by giving them another option besides a penalty.

Knowing the offending team was essentially given an advantage by being able to reset the line did not sit well with Sutton, who believes the rule change has been a positive for all.

"Believe it or not, no referee enjoys blowing a lot of penalties," he said.

"If we could just go out there and run end to end and it all sails along beautifully that's far more enjoyable than having to use the whistle all the time.

"The six-again has been great for us..."

The captain's challenge has been largely lauded but Sutton said it has taken some time for officials to get used to immediate and direct feedback if their call is deemed wrong.

"It's a shift in mindset because we all know it's rare we're perfect during the game but to stand out on the field and sometimes have a decision overturned, you have to be big enough to go 'yep, OK, got that wrong' and move on, but ultimately it's the right outcome for the game, and forget that personal disappointment," he said.

Australian Associated Press