Over the last week there has been a lot of misinformation published regarding AFL Umpiring. The AFLUA wishes to correct the record. AFLUA CEO Rob Kerr has put forward the following statement.
Given some of what has recently been published, it is important that the AFLUA puts the facts out to the public. Some of the recent misinformation just fuels anti-umpiring sentiment which is not good for umpires or the game itself. While there is clearly opportunity for providing improved facilities and resources for umpires, it is the case that umpires prepare themselves in a professional manner with the objective of serving the game in the best way possible. The public may not have that perception given some of the recent commentary and reporting. Some of the misinformation that I’d like to correct is as follows:
- During last week’s Collingwood vs Geelong game, commentators and the Geelong coach stated that there had clearly been coaching of umpires around enforcing the requirement that the ball travel 15 metres for a mark to be paid. The ‘rule of the week,’ misnomer was trotted out again and the impression was created that umpires were, due to recent coaching, umpiring differently to previous weeks. The fact is, this rule was not mentioned in the week leading up to the game and in fact had not been directly addressed since the pre-season period. Bizarrely, umpires were being criticised for enforcing a rule as per the rule book. This lead to the Essendon coach requesting that the club be informed of what is addressed at umpire coaching each week. Maybe that’s a reasonable idea but the suggestion was based on an incorrect premise and had at it’s heart was the sentiment of, ‘we don’t want umpires to surprise us and influence our performance with the ‘rule of the week.
- The Herald Sun has published an article which stated that umpires ‘have not completed a high-intensity skills session all together in several years.’ The ‘clever qualifiers’ in this article were ‘high intensity’ and ‘all-together,’ but the reader was being led down a path of ‘umpires don’t practice their skills.’ Indeed the article went on to list a range of basic umpiring skills that the journalist was stating AFL Umpires were unfamiliar with. First, the AFL Umpiring panel is National panel and not all umpires reside in Melbourne. However the non-Victorian umpires do have occasions where they attend training sessions in Melbourne during the year. Setting that logistical issue to the side, the fact is that the Victorian based umpires gather for training weekly, unless some other activity has been organised, and skill drills are a part of those sessions most weeks. As you would expect, reviewing decision making and clarifying interpretations is also an important part of that session and the umpires based outside of Victoria join that part of that session online. It would be fair to say that AFL Umpires have demonstrated proficiency in the ‘double whistle technique, setting the mark’ so those skills are not at the top of the list. They are basic umpiring 101, which while important at the novice and learner level, are well ingrained at AFL level. I might add, I did watch a session earlier in the year in which Umpires ‘played a game,’ where they cleared the ball from the 50m arc so those umpiring and not playing could practice their positioning. So on occasions they do try and recreate match conditions.
- In terms of ‘high intensity skills practice’ it’s not clear what Sam Landsberger is referencing here. However, if he is implying that Umpires are not practicing under match like conditions at training sessions, he is correct. Short of inviting Clubs to come in and participate in match practice, that simply can’t be done. How would all the umpires be involved in such a session even if a club did come in? Umpires do however go to Club training sessions when requested and are paid for their time. Those sessions are valuable practice sessions and in the 2023 year, field umpires chalked up 479 visits to clubs and in 2024 there have been 451 field umpire visits to Clubs in the year to date. Clubs often provide footage of those sessions so the umpire can receive coaching and feedback around their performance. This is valuable practice and even those umpires who work will make sure they are available at different times so they avail themselves of this opportunity.
- In the interests of accuracy, while the umpires did have discussion about their contractual requirements with respect to communicating with the media, Brett Rosebury did not speak to umpires about leaking to the media.
While some of the other Landsberger article is correct, the concerning piece is that the journalist has pushed a narrative that umpires are unprepared for their duties. AFL Umpires work very hard to be as best prepared as they can. The AFLUA is driving hard to see the AFL invest in improvements in umpires training facilities and resources so that they can be even better prepared, but to imply that they are not adequately prepared, despite the limitations they face, is an insult to their professionalism.