Two great umpires achieved their 200 game milestone over the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Boundary umpire, Mark Foster became the fastest boundary umpire in VFL/AFL history to achieve the 200 game milestone taking 8 years and 65 days. He eclipsed the previous record held by another icon, Shane Jansen, who did it in 8 years and 136 days.
Mark commenced his umpiring in Albury in country NSW in 1993 before moving to Melbourne and the VFL where he achieved the 2004 VFL Grand Final. His first AFL match was in 2005. Mark has umpired 21 finals including the last five AFL grand finals.
West Australian based field umpire Dean Margetts has certainly clocked up the frequent flyer kilometres over his 11 year career at AFL level. Dean commenced his career like many of his WA colleagues in the SSJF footy league in 1996. Dean umpired the WAFL grand final in 2000. His first AFL match was in 2002. Dean has umpired two finals in his total of 200 AFL matches.
Dean is the current field umpire of the year (2012), having been awarded the Bishop Shield for his work with the umpires association and on field performances. Dean has been a very consistent umpire and leads his WA colleagues with a very high level of professionalism.