There is no doubt that Ballarat would’ve made some type of football history on Sunday. Played in arctic temperatures with hail, wind and rain the weather bureau said the temperature felt like minus 5 degrees.  Add that to the sub-standard lighting and the game certainly took on a country game that needed car headlights around the perimeter of the oval turned on to allow players and coaches to see.

Rookie field umpire, Giles Lewis from South Australia got his first taste of AFL football last weekend when he had to come off the bench to replace Andre Gianfagna who pulled a calf muscle in the last quarter.  With Pt Adelaide and GWS going “hammer and tong” Giles had to maintain his composure and fit into the game, which is never an easy task, especially when it is your first.

Aaron Deckys moved to equal fourth place all time on the boundary umpire list of games when he equaled John Morris on 325 matches in round 18.  Aaron went past John this weekend umpiring his 326thgame.

Injuries are again taking their toll on the field umpire group with Ray Chamberlain and Andrew Stephens having to withdraw late in round 18.  It meant that Rob O’Gorman had to double up on Friday night into Sunday afternoon.  He was a very tired chap on Monday.  Into this weekend (Rd 19) Curtis Deboy, Nathan Williamson, Andrew Stephens were all back in action which only left one spare contracted field umpire not appointed to a match.

WA based field umpire, Dean Margetts has certainly added to his frequent flyer miles over the past six or seven weeks.  Thankfully his motto is “let’s get the job done”.

It was a fantastic Sunday afternoon at the Norman Hotel in Brisbane at the end of round 18.  The AFLUA hosted its annual Queensland luncheon.  Forty-five of our current and past members attended.  A reflective moment to remember, Tom McArthur and Clyde Plant was followed by a cultural walk down memory lane that had the locals questioning even our historian David Flegg’s notes.  We look forward to seeing you all again next year.

Congratulations to goal umpire Matt Dervan on his 50 game milestone.  It would have to be closest to the quickest by a goal umpire in history.  Matt only debuted in 2016 and umpired 3 finals in his second season before being appointed emergency umpire in the 2017 AFL grand final.  Check Matt’s video later in the week.

It was great to see Luke Farmer in Melbourne getting around the guys at training on Thursday evening.  Luke was in Melbourne seeing a specialist for another opinion.  He has been unable to umpire for the past two seasons.

We have worked with three FM MDE assistant trainers in the past two weeks.  See Bernadette and Tim’s video’s up on our website and watch out for Joe’s video later in the week.  Thanks to all of our great trainers and chaperones who go out of their way to assist us.

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