Two umpires will celebrate milestones on Sunday afternoon at the St Kilda v Gold Coast Suns game – Brendan ‘Hosko’ Hosking will umpire his 100th AFL game alongside Hayden Gavine who walks onto the ground to umpire his 1st AFL game.
The AFLUA recently visited Leigh Fisher’s new café – the Cornerstone and Co – a small licenced café located in the leafy back streets of Hampton, to catch up with Hayden Gavine, who will umpire his first AFL game on Sunday.
Umpiring an AFL Grand Final is every umpires’ dream, doing six places you in a league of your own! Luke Walker, who will umpire his 250th AFL game this weekend, is ranked third in the all-time list of goal umpires appearing in grand finals.
Last night, former AFL Field Umpire Brett Allen was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
AFL footy comes back to your screens in full force this weekend after three weeks of club byes. Sadly, the only group who don’t get any rest are the field umpires who are required to back up sometimes twice in a weekend in the four field umpire trial system and the umpire coaches who still have to front up to their two or three games each weekend to oversee and assess our umpires.
West Australian goal umpire Matt Laycock (former AFL Umpire) has called time on his distinguished career after umpiring 161 WAFL and 45 AFL matches. Laycock officiated his final game of football at the Swan Districts and West Perth WAFL league clash last weekend and looks back on his career with WA Football Commission Umpiring Pathway Manager Tim Priest.
Another goal umpire with a milestone this weekend is Queenslander Shaun Apted who will umpire his 100th AFL game at the Gold Coast v Carlton game at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.
Anthony Black has been the childhood goal umpiring idol for a number of AFL and state-based umpires across Australia and Steve Williams, who walks onto the ground for the North Melbourne v St Kilda game on Friday night to officiate his 150th AFL game, is one of them. His legacy lives on as Steve still tries to emulate Anthony’s style in his performance today.
Congratulations to Simon for becoming the 22nd field umpire in VFL/AFL history to reach 300 AFL games on Saturday. Alistair Clarkson and Simon will both remember the game for different reasons. Alistair was fined by the AFL for alleging that a decision Simon awarded late in the game to the Gold Coast was disgraceful. From the feedback most pundits thought that it was fair enough considering the continual warnings the players were given to “hold” their position.