Goal umpire, Darren Mills turned out for his first game of the 2013 season on Saturday evening at the MCG. Darren has overcome some early season fitness issues and regained form in the VFL. Welcome back Darren.
Another welcome back, this time to boundary umpire, Chris Gordon. Chris tore a calf and developed a stress fracture in round 2 and has been recovering ever since. Chris, who is a haemophiliac has had a series of mini setbacks but ran the frost off the ground in the Casey reserves on Sunday. He was certainly looking forward to getting back on the park. What a great opportunity for the young boundary umpire he was to run with. It’s not often an AFL grand final umpire resumes after injury in a VFL reserves match.
Stuart Wenn has seen it all and been part of many memorable matches in his 300 plus AFL games. It was a little surprising to see him highlighted on replays when he jumped to get out of the way of a Steve Johnson “shank.” The ball rebounded off his legs and resulted in a Brisbane goal that started their remarkable comeback for an after the siren win. It wasn’t an Adrian Fletcher and Peter Carey moment. Field umpire, Peter Carey marked a short kick from Adrian Fletcher (current Brisbane Assistant Coach) in a 1999 Fremantle v St Kilda match when the ball was kicked directly at him.
