The AFL finals umpiring panel has been released for 2025.
The field umpires announced bring 4,529 total games of experience to the panel, including 272 finals and 37 grand finals.
8 field umpires, 9 boundary umpires and 3 of the goal umpires listed on the panel have umpired in an AFL Grand Final.
The list of 16 field, 16 boundary, and 8 goal umpires includes 5 finals debutants.
Nathan Toner will take the field for the first time in an AFL final, in his 5th season on the AFL list. Nathan started out with the Essendon District Football League when he was 13 and progressed to the VFL in 2016 whilst in Year 12 at school, where he spent a year on the Development Squad. In 2017, he advanced to the Senior Development Squad before being appointed to the VFL Senior Squad in 2018. In 2021 he umpired the AFLW Grand Final, and has umpired 84 AFL games to date.
Benjamin Fely and Sam Stagg will be running the boundary for the first time in a final. After a cracking year in 2019, where he umpired in the VFL Grand Final, AFLW Grand Final, and was awarded VFL Boundary Umpire of the Year, Sam was elevated to the AFL list in 2020. Ben also brings great experience to the panel, having umpired the 2021 AFLW Grand Final and the 2017, 2018 and 2019 NEAFL Grand Finals.
Goal umpires Alex Chisholm and Tom Sullivan will also be making their finals debut. Alex recently notched up his 100th AFL game, while Tom celebrated his 50th game this year. After being named as emergency goal umpires on last year’s finals panel, this is a fitting reward following another strong season behind the goals from Alex and Tom.
AFL Finals Umpiring Panel
Field:
Nick Foot, Brett Rosebury, Matt Stevic, Curtis Deboy, Andrew Stephens, Hayden Meyer, Brendan Hosking, Jamie Broadbent, Simon Meredith, Nathan Williamson, Rob Findlay, Nathan Toner, Craig Fleer, Andre Gianfagna, Jacob Mollison, Brent Wallace.
Boundary:
Ben Macdonald, Benjamin Fely, Chris Bull, Damien Main, Daniel Field-Read, Ian Burrows, Jordan Russell, Josh Garrett, Matt Konestschka, Matthew Jenkinson, Matthew Tomkins, Michael Barlow, Michael Marantelli, Nathan Doig, Nicholas Phillips, Sam Stagg.
Goal:
Adam Wojcik, Alex Chisholm, Dylan Benwell, Matthew Dervan, Matthew Maclure, Sam Hunter, Sam Walsh, Tom Sullivan.
Emergency Field:
John Howorth, Justin Power, Nick Brown, Nic McGinness.
Emergency Boundary:
Jordan Andrews, Luke Graves, Nick Swanson, Sean Moylan.
Emergency Goal:
Peter Challen, Angus McKenzie-Wills, Steven Piperno, Stephen Williams
Article by Patrick Sexton