Goal umpire, Steve Williams couldn’t have scripted a better finish to his 100th game yesterday in the Essendon v Hawthorn clash at the “G.” In front of just on sixty thousand spectators Essendon staged a remarkable comeback to beat the reigning premiers. “These are the games you umpire for, to be involved in a great finish makes all the sacrifices and hard work worth it,” reflected Steve today.
We have all heard the accolades Luke Walker has received over his career to date because they are breath taking. Luke steps onto the ground on Monday at the MCG in the Hawthorn v Geelong match. It will be his 200th AFL game which includes 30 finals, 6 of which are grand finals.
Field umpire Troy Pannell officiates in his 150th AFL game this Friday night in the preliminary final between Sydney and North Melbourne. Troy is uncovering some rare earth this season as his finals campaigns in the previous two seasons had not gone this deep.
When you realise that ACT based boundary umpire, Luke Roberts started umpiring in 1985, most of the current group were only “a twinkle in their father’s eyes” as the old saying goes. Luke’s first ACTAFL grand final was two years later in 1987 and he debuted on the AFL list in 1988 at the SCG. Footy was a past time then and while it was a passion for him, there were more things in Luke’s world that took precedence. His nursing qualifications, a very young family and world travel were a few distractions. AFL footy had just entered the Sydney market and was attended by a more inquisitive crowd, rather than the passionate crowd it has now become. ” I was only 18 and had never seen more than a few hundred people at a game before so a 10,000 SCG crowd was huge,” reflected Luke. “My memories are vague and I only remember snippets. Standing in the race next to Jason Dunstall and being dwarfed by him, watching John Platten and Gary Ablett snr taking speccies put me in awe of AFL football.”
Thomo believes umpiring is etched into his DNA. “I have spent more time in my life umpiring now than not. I just love it, I am challenged every time I walk out onto a ground.” The passion and enthusiasm in his voice is unbridled.
When anyone spends any length of time out of the game they love and are so passionate about because they are injured they can become dispirited and disillusioned. The game they have worked so hard to be a part of can seem so far away. Negative thoughts about am I good enough, can I overcome this injury invade your everyday life, whereas when you are upbeat and getting selected each week these thoughts never enter your head.
If you sit back and review the umpiring career of Chris Kamolins who umpired his 150th AFL game on Friday night between Hawthorn and Collingwood it has worked in the opposite direction to what the current thinking is.
The ground announcer’s voice boomed across the MCG on Saturday night as the umpires entered the arena “………and congratulations to field umpire Shane McInerney on umpiring his 400th AFL game.” The scoreboard cameras had focused on him, it was Shane’s moment in the sun where the broader footballing public could recognise a great feat, even grudgingly, by an umpire. There was barely a ripple of applause or even a derisive comment from a frustrated supporter sitting nearby.
Run your eye down the list of boundary umpires that front up week after week, do their job and go home you’d struggle to name most of them. They are the unheralded men of footy. They have to run harder, faster and further than anyone else who takes the field in any footy game but only get noticed when the commentators focus on a short throw-in rather than the ruckmen standing 50 metres away from them.