“Jack” as he is affectionally known by his mates, stood proud today as the AFL recognised the feat of one of its best officials as he reaches 400 AFL games this Saturday. He then announced that he was hanging up his whistle at the end of the season.
AFL Boundary umpire, Darren Wilson just keeps racking up the milestones. Darren umpired his 350th AFL game in the 35th and closest SA derby. Darren’s total includes 47 finals and 12 grand finals.
It is not very often that you come across a man in this day and age who is simply prepared to let his performances do the talking. However, for the past 10 seasons that is exactly what the gentle giant, Justin Bennison has done. He seeks feedback from his coaches, works hard on the training track and then gets the best out of himself in games. Otherwise you just don’t hear too much from him.
Umpiring stalwart, Bryan Sheehan was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame at a gala evening at Parliament House in Canberra last night.
Two great umpires achieved their 200 game milestone over the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Goal umpire, Chris Appleton, notched up his 150th AFL appearance in Darwin on Saturday night. Chris, a stalwart of the goal umpiring brigade has umpired in some out of the way places this year, including Darwin and Wellington in New Zealand on Anzac Day.
Simon Meredith certainly had a milestone game to remember, Adelaide v Fremantle at AAMI Park in his 200th AFL match went down to the wire. Simon had to call on all of his experience to work through a tense score review in the dying minutes of the game when Adelaide were pressing to regain the lead.
TO HAVE umpired 250 AFL games is to have dealt with a lot of harsh scrutiny and absorbed the cries of displeasure of thousands of angry fans.
Round seven sees only one milestone being achieved but it is a good one! WA based boundary umpire Alan Zanich clocked up his 150th game when he took to the field in the Fremantle v. Collingwood game at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night.