It may have been a cold wintry Sunday afternoon at Princes Park, the traditional home of the “old dark navy blues”, but it came alive when traditional rivals, Collingwood stepped onto the park at 2pm. That didn’t stop about 2,000 die hard footy nuts from turning out for the game.
It soon becomes obvious after chatting with Ben Ryan that there haven’t been many AFL products that come from Capricornia or Central Queensland as we know it. Ben can name three, ex North Melbourne player Gavin Urquhart, current Suns player Zac Smith and himself. That makes him pretty unique.
As Matt Leppard walks onto Etihad tomorrow night in his 50th AFL game he is hoping they will not be playing the song by chumbawamba “I get knocked down” because the last time Essendon and the Bulldogs met at Etihad in 2012 Matt did indeed get knocked down; three times, by players coming out of a field bounce. “Yeah I felt like I had a target on my back that night,” exclaimed Matt today. “But it wasn’t as bad as the hit I received in my first year when I was really cleaned up in the Essendon v. WCE match and really didn’t know where I was for a while.”
This week the South Metro Junior Football League, along with the Australian Football League, celebrate the Community Umpiring Round in an effort to highlight how much fun can be had through umpiring community football.
Congratulations to Scott Jeffery, who has been appointed to officiate in his 250th match on Sunday 4th May, Geelong v Richmond at the MCG.
AFL umpires went back to grass roots community umpiring groups this week as part of the new umpires development plan that has been rolled out this year. AFL Umpire Development Manager, Adam Davis has started to roll out the new approach by re-focusing the “umpiring is everyone’s business” campaign turning the focus back to engaging with young community umpires to encourage them to enjoy their involvement, understand the pathway to an AFL career and learn to be better umpires.
AFL whistleblowers Shane McInerney and Michael Palm wound back the clock and relived some old memories during a trip to Ballarat on Wednesday night.
By the time you have amassed 150 AFL games including an AFL grand final, you could be excused for thinking that you had seen it and experienced it all. Not so for Chelsea, her milestone match between St Kilda and Brisbane in Wellington, New Zealand threw up a number of firsts that add to the uniqueness of the event.