Shane McInerney heralded in his 400th game on Saturday with a panel of significant experience. Between the nine officiating umpires there was a total of 1873 games of AFL football including 131 finals and 19 grand finals. Boundary umpire Drew Kowalski was the least experienced with 82 games under his belt.
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.
Field umpire Andrew Mitchell (Mitch) walked onto Blundstone Arena on Saturday quietly confident that he could handle whatever the game threw at him. “I had an eight year apprenticeship in the VFL with almost 150 senior games of experience. Five years ago it wasn’t kick, mark, play on as much as it is today. You had to learn how to manage players too.” reflected Andrew on the eve of his 50th AFL game.
Shaun Ryan has not thumped a football into the turf since the last quarter of the 2011 grand final, and his back feels all the better for it.
The comebacks continued from VFL to AFL this week. Simon Meredith and Chris Kamolins were back from long term injury and illness. Both of these experienced umpires bolstered the ranks and brought a level of experience to the group.
The AFL Umpiring Department in collaboration with the AFL Umpires Association opened its training and coaching doors on Wednesday afternoon and evening to our retired umpires who wanted to see if things were done any differently in the modern era. Twenty-three past umpires joined the current group and were put through the coaching process.
AFL goal umpire David Dixon has equalled Colin Hood’s record of 311 games this weekend when he officiated in the St.Kilda v Western Bulldogs match at Etihad Stadium on Sunday. This puts David and Colin equal fourth on the all-time list of VFL/AFL games umpired by a goal umpire. Only current goal umpire, Mark Canning (318), Craig Clark (334) and David Flegg (337) are ahead of David. Coincidentally, Colin was David’s partner in his first AFL game and the goal umpire’s observer in this game.
We all know about Jordan’s footy career with Essendon and Carlton but it is his resurgence to get to 50 games as an umpire that has pleased him the most. “I was dying to get back,” reflected Jordan last week. “When my family came to terms with how to best support Ricky following his accident and things settled down I realised just how much I missed being involved.”