Veteran field umpire Stephen McBurney had his preseason planned to the minute and was ready for his 384th AFL match on Easter Sunday at Etihad Stadium when he strained a hamstring in the last running effort of the night at training last Thursday and was forced out of the game with injury. It is the first time in his career that he has been sidelined by a soft tissue injury.
Boundary umpire, Chris Morrison can’t take a trick. He slipped early in the Melbourne v Port Adelaide an injured a hamstring. He was forced from the field. Chris is one of the hardest trainers and is thoroughly prepared but has been dogged by injury in the past couple of years.
Jeff Dalgleish umpired his 50th AFL game on Saturday in the Western Bulldogs v Brisbane game. Jeff, who lives in WA claims he holds the unenviable record of the most number of emergency jobs as a field umpire since he joined the list in 2009.
WA boundary umpire Adam Bastick who returned to the WAFL panel when grand final umpire, Nathan Doig returned from a leave of absence, had his blonde “Bieber” lookalike locks shaved for charity.
Boundary umpire, Shane Thiele has fallen on his feet since arriving in Melbourne from SA. Shane has enjoyed every minute of his time since his arrival and has certainly put all of the Melbourne based boundary umpires on notice with his training. Shane has never umpired in front of a crowd larger than 42,000 at AAMI, he had a ripper at the MCG yesterday with over 76,000 people in attendance.