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.
Two umpires from completely different pathways celebrated their 100 game milestones on the weekend. It has taken goal umpire, Daniel Hoskin 9 years and 4 games to notch his 100. Dan umpired his first game in 2009 from his base in SA. He went to work and umpired in Qld for 12 months in 2015 before returning to SA where he is now stationed. Dan worked as a teacher in the country region of SA in a town called Moonta, travelling over four hours return to training each night and games each weekend. Field umpire, Leigh Fisher played 55 games for St. Kilda before turning to umpiring. Leigh umpired his first AFL match in 2013. Leigh has taken to umpiring like a “fish to water”, some would say. He certainly thrives in the environment and has become one of the first umpires picked each week. Leigh has umpired 36 AFL games straight and is third on the list of consecutive games as it currently stands. (Meredith 62, Nicholls 60 are ahead of him) Leigh, like Dan has an obvious passion for football, and we congratulate both of them on their milestone.
I have just spent a week in the AFLUA office completing various tasks from placing and packaging orders for Asics, updating website articles to helping organise and putting together the wonderful initiative that is the Fiona McBurney match day experience. I was taken to training on Thursday night to Ikon park where the Victorian based field, boundary and goal umpires train.
Two hundred and fifty AFL games is a terrific milestone and joining the ranks is goal umpire Chris Appleton who reached this milestone when umpiring the Essendon v Adelaide game at Etihad Stadium on 23 March 2018.
Since joining the AFL panel in 2015, James has gone about his umpiring in a quiet and unassuming fashion.
Welcome to our new rookie field umpire Andrew Adair who was appointed following Alex Whetton’s promotion to the AFL list in February.
West Australian boundary umpire, Sean Moylan debuted in his first AFL game this weekend in what turned out to be a pulsating game at Optus Stadium between WCE and Geelong. Optus Stadium will become a bigger fortress than Subiaco ever was. Our umpires who have experienced it first hand in the first three rounds say that the noise is amazing.
Seventeen years on and over 707,000 kilometres of travel between Perth and Melbourne, Dean Margetts umpired his 300th AFL game at the new Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night in the match between Fremantle and Essendon. Both Ross Lyon and John Worsfold congratulated Dean on his outstanding achievement prior to the game. Dean’s family and closest friends enjoyed the hospitality of the new stadium at a corporate function provided by the AFLUA in conjunction with the AFL to mark the occasion. (See our video interview with Dean on the website later this week.)
The AFL Umpires Association through the Jeff Crouch Foundation donated $6,500.00 to the Royal Children’s Hospital on Good Friday.