News

Chris Appleton has been appointed as the AFL Goal Umpire Coach and will commence in the role on 1 December 2019.

A NORTHERN suburbs teenager who founded a football umpire academy when she was 14 has been named WA’s young person of the year.

Ron Bailey, has managed our X umpires group for the past 14 years and still has a smile on his face! At our last X-umpires luncheon at Caulfield Ron was presented with his Life Time Achievement Award by CEO, Peter Howe on behalf of the association, and he was really smiling.

Spare a thought for the players who were traded and those who weren’t over the past 10 days or so of the trade period.  Some players held their own fate in their hands, others had to sit and wait until the trading was over to see if they would be offered a contract for 2020. Many do, but for others their dream of playing AFL footy may well be over unless they are thrown a life-line in the upcoming draft.

Our next ‘Where are they Now?’ is a Goal Umpire who needs no introduction to all AFLUA members.  Leigh Du-Val Keen is what our Association strives for, so much so that an award named the Leigh Keen Shield was introduced in 2000 in recognition of Leigh’s outstanding career and service to the AFLUA.  It is the AFLUA’s most prestigious award for goal umpires and takes into account both on-field performance and off-field commitment to the AFLUA.  The specific criteria for the award are: achieving on field success; actively contributing to and supporting the AFLUA; role modelling the attributes of commitment, loyalty and dedication. 

Now the entertainment industry may have had Frank Sinatra, but our next ‘Where are they now?’ Stanley Fisher (better known as Stan to all VFLUA members and Ginger to his mates) was a member of the Umpires’ Appointment Board for 14 years including four as Chairman of the Board.  During that era, members of the Board voted on who would be umpiring the next week.

The three All Australian Umpires were announced at the AFLUA grand final cocktail party in Southbank on Saturday night.