News

It’s one thing for those of us who are part of the umpiring fraternity to know some backstories involving our colleagues, but it is another thing all together for little things to come to light that we didn’t otherwise know.

‘Good things come to those that wait’ is the old saying and nothing could be more true in the case of Daniel Hoskin who officiated his 100th AFL game having been on the list for 10 years.

Not many umpiring careers have started as a result of high school detention but there is one umpire amongst us, who because his teacher didn’t know what to do with him, made him goal umpire a year 10 game, and the rest is history.

Not since the introduction of fines for umpire contact 10 years ago have we seen the number of players fined for umpire contact than we saw on the weekend.  The AFL Match Review Officer, Michael Christian has fined 5 players from the weekend’s round and 6 in the past two weeks.  This follows a letter sent to all clubs at the beginning of April alerting them to the increasing level of contact.   Leigh Fisher must have thought he was back playing when he was struck by two players.  Dustin Martin was fined for making contact with Curtis Deboy.  Curtis would weigh 62 kgs ringing wet, no one in their right mind would get in Dusty’s way surely!  Is this a sign of the times given the increase in defensive strategies clubs are running or was it just luck (so to speak)?

Second gamer Andre Gianfagna walked onto Etihad stadium on Sunday in the match between North Melbourne and Hawthorn with a camera strapped to his head.  The broadcaster was looking for a different level of interaction with the play and asked if the umpires would agree to trialling the camera.  If you watched any of the vision you would have to agree that an umpire’s head is constantly on a swivel and he has many many things to consider before awarding a free kick.  I trust that the viewers didn’t get a little sick watching the game with the camera jerking around.  The technology has changed significantly if you look at what Andre was wearing and then rewind to the Hall of Fame game in 2009 and see what Jason Venkataya was wearing.  Perhaps as the swans supporter suggested to our umpires in the Sydney v Adelaide match, a pair of glasses would suffice?

The first VFL matches played on April 25 occurred in 1914 exactly 12 months prior to the first division storming ashore at Gallipoli.

TOPE Adepoyibi has dedicated her life to helping reduce the burden of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. But with aspirations to umpire in the NAB AFL Women’s competition, she is returning to the craft she started as a teenager. 

Like most of us, our height and physique is partly the reason why we get into umpiring. A love of football keeps us interested. Such is the case with my next personality – who John Richard “Mossie” Moss, who was born on the 26th of October 1946 at St. Omers Hospital, Camberwell to Roy and Vera Moss.  Mossie was one of 3 siblings a brother Les and a sister Rosemary, who are both deceased.