Milestones

I’m sure that one of the joys in footy is sharing milestones with colleagues, friends and family. The umpiring department is often inundated with requests from our umpires for tickets to enable everyone the opportunity to share the event.

South Australian based boundary umpire, Mark Thomson became only the second boundary umpire in the history of the game to umpire 400 AFL games in the round 23 clash between Port Adelaide and Fremantle.  The other is his good mate and colleague, Darren Wilson.  Mark becomes only the 7th umpire in the history of the game to umpire 400 plus games.  Nothing short of a phenomenal effort for a man committed to his craft.

It only seems like yesterday that Hayden Gavine commenced his career with the AFL, having been appointed to the list in 2017.  Two seasons later, he notched up his 50thAFL game when he took to the field on Saturday 24thAugust to umpire the North Melbourne v Melbourne game in round 23, 2019.

The celebrations continue for our games record breaker Shane McInerney.  Four AFL coaches arrived at training last Thursday night to recognise the enormity of Shane’s achievement.  They arrived only to find every field umpire training in one of Shane’s 37 old umpiring shirts with the number 30 on the back.  It was a sight to behold.

I have been extremely lucky in my time in VFL/AFL football to witness first hand the great umpires in the modern era.  Make no mistake about it the dedication and perseverance required to be successful as an umpire is no less challenging than that of a player.  While you don’t have the physical challenges of the continual battering player’s take you do have the mental challenges to get it right in a very demanding sport.

Ben Macdonald has had a whirlwind couple of weeks.  Not only did he umpire his 50thAFL game, he was one of four boundary umpires selected to umpire in China.