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Steve Axon has always taken every opportunity to break records.  He umpired his first SANFL senior grand final as an 18-year-old.  A child protégé, success came to Steve because he has a relentless approach to training both physically and mentally.  He umpired in his first AFL grand final in 2007 after umpiring only 35 AFL games.  He became the first SA based goal umpire to achieve that feat.  Fast forward 10 years and Steve now becomes the first SA based goal umpire to achieve the 200 AFL game milestone.  Steve’s other great record is umpiring in 21 of the 43 showdowns.  Read Steve’s own story on how he learned his lessons from many great goal umpires in this website.

The fascination for goal umpiring started at a young age for Steve Axon, who this weekend will officiate his 200th game between Adelaide and Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

There is no doubt that a drawn game of football tantalises every statistician’s taste buds. Our own, David Flegg has had a great year providing us will all sorts of material. So I thought that for completeness it was only fair that I share some of his absolute pearls with you.

Congratulations this week must go to our two 100 game milestone achievers, Rob Taylor (boundary) and Andrew Mitchell (field).  Andrew umpired for 8 years and 150 games in the VFL before making the AFL list at age 30.  He is certainly resilient and not even a shoulder reconstruction at the end of 2016 meant that he lost a game through injury.  “I haven’t missed a game in 14 years due to injury,” said Andrew in an article for his 100th match.  The highlight would no doubt be his first final in 2014.

Alan Ross Raphael, commonly known as Ross is one of our longest serving life members, but who is he really?  

In 1997 Andrew Mitchell started his umpiring journey with the Waverley Junior Football Association. Although this league has now disbanded, Andrew’s career certainly has not. This weekend in the Western Bulldogs v Essendon match, Andrew will umpire his 100th match.

The third annual Pride match was played between Sydney and St.Kilda on Saturday night at the SCG. Both Sydney and St.Kilda stand united to promote inclusion in our game from all corners of our society. The AFLUA are strong supporters of this match and inclusion in our game.

I am sure Simon Leigh has been called many things but a telemarketer isn’t probably one of them. Damien Main was at work one Monday afternoon when he received a call from an unknown number so decided to let it go to voicemail.  No doubt, Simon had just hung up when Damien was calling him back.

AFLUA life member and grand final umpire Leo Sutton passed away in Canberra last week after a short illness.  Leo was a tireless volunteer in his latter years working for the Canberra Lions Club and the Canberra Hospice.