Milestones

In round 3 on Saturday the 10th of April 2004, North Melbourne won by 5 points against Carlton at the MCG in front of 36,273 fans. This was also the day Simon Meredith made his AFL debut and was awarded heritage number 398. Simon will walk out onto the MCG this Saturday afternoon, 14 years since that debut for his 300th AFL match. He becomes only the 22nd field umpire to achieve this feat. Within the 299 matches, Simon has umpired 24 finals, 4 Grand Finals and was awarded AFL life membership earlier this year. An extraordinary career to date.

You are immediately captured by his unbridled enthusiasm, his contagious smile and passion for the game.  Field umpire, Simon Meredith may have just umpired his 250th AFL game but he could well be that same youthful rookie who first stepped onto an AFL ground in 2004. 

Boundary umpire, Tim Morrison forms part of a Western Region Football League push to take over AFL umpiring.  Tim is but one of seven listed umpires making his mark on the AFL umpiring scene who commenced his career in that league.

Underneath that warm welcoming smile and the apparent laid back style beats the heart of a man who is driven to be a perfectionist in everything he touches.

The first thing you notice about chatting with Chris Gordon (Gordo) is that his smile immediately disarms you and you relax into his company with ease.

Field umpire Nick Foot was very happy as a youngster playing footy with his mates at North Hobart while his father coached opposition team Glenorchy. Nick was 14 years old, he played with mates on Saturday and umpired with mates on Sunday.

Highly experienced boundary umpire Rob Haala umpired his 250th AFL game in a significant encounter at the MCG on Saturday night, dreamtime at the G.  Rob moves into 15th place in total number of VFL/AFL games umpired by boundary umpires.  Rob joins Aaron Deckys (259), Jonathan Creasey (280), John Morris (290), Mark Thomson (307) and Darren Wilson (381) as current running boundary umpires who have more than 250 games to their credit.

“I never expected to make the AFL panel on my first attempt after umpiring the 2011 VFL grand final.  I had only umpired 38 senior VFL games and it was my first final series, but you would never turn down the opportunity,” reflected Brendan today when he thought about his introduction to AFL football.